We've Come This Far By Faith TBAABSG
by Me
Summary: Angels help Galacticans keep faith in Earth through fierce battle and sad aftermath. Now with story from 2002 or so as the other chapter,big battles in space and struggles on earth
1. Default Chapter Title

Summary: The angels must help the the people retain faith in Earth after learning Earth isn't the perfect place with weapns to fight the Cylons that they expect, and after Boxey is feared lost in an attack.

Disclaimer: The characters Monica, Tess, Andrew, and Adam are owned by the creators of CBS' "Touched by an Angel." This is a fiction story based on the series Battlestar Galactica and its characters created and owned by Glen A. Larson. No infringement of any copyrightrights are intended. All unrecognized characters are mine and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

Chapter One

President Adar of the First Fleet met Commander Adama privately aboard one of the fleet ships. "I know it's unusual, Commander," spoke the president, "and I'm still dealing with the issue myself, but I thought you'd best be forewarned."

Adama frowned. "What can it be - why keep it so secret?"

"Well, the problem is...word's already leaking out. Someone is picking up transmissions and sending them to us, we're afraid. And we think that someone might be Baltar."

Adama nodded. Lt. Boomer had been masterful at picking up little snippets from broadcasts that, from all indications, originated from Earth. But, what would Baltar be doing with them? Were the Cylons that close? "What can it be - we know Earth's had to have some tough times, but you saw the Apollo XI broadcast, and the other things. What if they're advanced enough..."

"Yes," Adar agreed, sighing, "but part of it's because we're running low on food again, part of it's because the legends make us think it's going to be a much better place than this." He depressed a button on a comm panel, causing a video to appear. The news anchor spoke of famine, disease, and drought. He spoke of many problems that made it seem so much like the world they'd left.

"Commander, I know you always had such faith in Earth - you were a natural to lead the Galactica and the fleet. Now, we've kept this off Inter-fleet broadcast to some extent, but they've been jamming us and getting it through a little. And then there's the technology level - they won't help us beat back the Cylons, not if the date on the lunar landing was any indication. It seems as though the signal's much more recent than we thought." The men sighed as they stared at the viewscreen. "I hate to say it, but now at least you've been forewarned. This is a battle which will be hard to fight, maybe harder than any we've had. A battle to keep the people, and the other members of the leadership, focused on Earth, and wanting to even go there. "

Andrew, a Caseworker angel, Monica, a search-and-rescue angel who sometimes assisted in their casework, Adam, a caseworker and angel of death, and Tess, their supervisor, met in an Iowa coffeeshop. Tess, a dark-skinned angel with graying hair, explained. "Okay, angel babies, this next mission will be a tricky one. First...Andrew, do you remember when you couldn't find me a few years back, when you had a case?" He nodded. "I said it was something far away - you have no idea how far. Let me start there and explain."

Tess told them of a frigid planet with temperatures below even those of Earth's Antarctica. She'd dressed in a huge fur coat and many layers underneath. She could sense the evil coming from the Cylons, creatures who sought to destroy the humans of the fleet headed toward Earth. She'd been dispatched due to a sudden call of faith' - this was when a person cried out to God for help without really knowing how or why, or in some cases even who He was. Guardian Angels Meg and Joy stood around, pointing to a small boy; Tess could tell as she entered the shuttlecraft they, too, had just arrived. Tess had no idea what this was about, only that she needed to assist. And, God had said this was too important for her underling, Andrew.

"Hello," came Tess' greeting.

"Wh-who are you? Did you come down on the shuttle, too," murmured the boy in a frozen whisper, shivering as he spoke.

"No, I just wanted to tell you God heard your prayer asking Him for help. What you've felt about Him from your grandfather's stories is real, just like Earth is. He loves you," remarked Tess. She was invisible to anyone else.

"It's c-c-cold," came the boy, named Boxey. His dad was one of the greatest fighter pilots on the spacefaring ship called Galactica, and they were there to destroy a space gun which their enemies planned to use to wipe them out. Tess received this information in a still, small voice as she looked warmly upon the lad.

"You have great faith," remarked the angel. "It will be rewarded one day. Do not fear, God will protect you and your people, and your dad and the others will destroy this weapon." The boy smiled, and Tess vanished, flying in angelic form back to Earth.

With Tess' story concluded, she explained. "Some angels have been handling things there, mostly Guardians, but now their faith in Earth has been greatly challenged, and the Father has assigned us an awesome task, to try and guide them home."

Monica, sipping coffee as she listened, was shocked. "And now...we're going into space?" came her Irish accent.

Andrew whistled. "Closest I've come is that mission with Mrs. Lovell when her husband was aboard Apollo 13." He and Adam gave thanks they hadn't had to go to the wounded craft.

Tess grinned. "Yes, you did a great job with her. Her faith was sorely tested, as have some peoples' on board the fleet." Monica asked how they would help restore it "Can't tell you yet. First, we have to let things run their course."

Monica, Andrew, Tess, and Adam appeared on board the Galactica as biologists. They would be from one of the many fleet ships when visible, and do work on the agroship, working to grow more and better food. Monica looked at Boxey sleeping. "That's the boy I told you about," came Tess. Adam related when the boy's father, Apollo, had died. He vividly recalled Apollo asking if he were dead, and if he could make sure someone went to comfort his son. The two went toward a great light, which his companions saw as a Ship of Lights. Adam had told him that God had picked him to receive the exact co-ordinates of Earth. The well-timed prayers of Boxey had combined with Starbuck's request, and God did what He'd planned to do anyway, which is send Apollo back.

Another angel - Meg - came up beside Monica and Andrew. "I've been his guardian angel for a long while, believe me when I say his meekness will fool you - he's pretty daring in a way."

"Tess has told me," agreed the auburn-haired angel. "Is he part of our mission, Tess?"

"Angel Girl," came the pet name, "this whole fleet is part of our mission, because the actions of one man can make a big difference." She would wait till later to tell the other angels they expected Earth to be something of a Paradise. "You better get down to the nature room, he's going to awaken any second, and you can help him locate something."

Meg explained. "The archangel Raphael ensured it was protected - he's had Guardians on it since before they launched."

Monica raised her eyebrows. "What is it?"

"Their peoples' old, dusty family Bible - in scroll form," quipped Tess.

Boxey ran into the nature room where he'd felt led to look. He was followed closely by Apollo. Monica noticed Tess informing the Guardian Angels that the Lord was allowing the items to be seen. Boxey turned to Monica, who was now visible. "Hello, have you come looking, too? I haven't seen you before."

"Looking for some peace and quiet, yes. I'm Monica."

"I mean looking for the box with wisdom. I felt like a...well, a still, small voiuce telling me to come here." He grinned. It wasn't like before when he'd stowed away on the shuttle - he knew this couldn't pose any danger. Monica pointed them to the cave with the invisible angels before vanishing herself as Boxey and Apollo entered. Meg rushed past her as the boy sprinted to the cave and found the crate with many scrolls. Your charge, came the crate Guardians' looks. Meg confirmed this, as all three kept scrolls from being ripped by the sudden movement. Thankfully, Apollo quickly told Boxey to be careful, and he listened.

Monica listened in as the two spoke, considering the creation of a "cave" in a ship like this. It was quite a large ship, so she supposed it wasn't all that odd. "Careful..." Apollo shouted, startling the lad. "These are...so old...they predate our ships, anything within memory." He began to scan the items, then muttered the word "earth." The angels noticed he sat up very straight. Apollo's mind wandered as he considered the journey they'd made almost totally on faith till now. A planet they had scant pictures of and from which they'd received some signals, signals they didn't even have till after they launched. And a drawing of a star system - not much to go on. And yet, they'd launched toward it just the same, and had been leading a fleet there for quite some time.

Tess walked over to Monica and explained. "They're about to learn about the legendary planet' to which they're headed."

"Are they from Earth," Boxey wondered.

"No...but we might be. We may just be...heading home." But to what, he asked himself as he considered the rumors beginning to hit the Galactica. No, he told himself, that's not possible. It can't be that bad. He glanced at his boy. "Run, get Commander Adama down here as fast as you can." Boxey sprinted away as Apollo began reading, with Meg in hot pursuit, lest the boy stumble and fall in the darkened corridors. The viper pilot gasped as he read. "A man shall fight many great battles in those times of the end. He shall see great sorrow and loss of family, and witness horrible, untold numbers of deaths. But his son shall...lead him to joy unspeakable?" He couldn't believe - though as a loving father he wanted to - that that verse alluded to him. In another verse, he read something that could only refer to him. "Sailing the black seas, he shall be taken to a place...where an angel of the Lord shall tell him the exact location of Earth!" His mouth stood agape for several moments, until Boxey approached him once more.

"Are these true - did God inspire these prophets," wondered Monica. "Is Earth only a legend to them - how did they..."

Tess shook her head. "So many questions, Miss Wings. Give things time. "

"I was there," explained Adam. "I led Apollo to where he received the location." He grinned. "I must say it's the swellest job an Angel of Death ever had - you're helping someone, taking them to the brink - yet you get to see someone coming back to life."

Tess explained. "God worked with these people to get them away from the land of their ancestor Cain. However, they insisted on building a ship with the help of fallen angels, instead of staying on Earth. When they didn't put their whole trust in God, He allowed them to venture on their own, and colonize other worlds. They think of one of Tubal Cain's thirteen children as the thirteenth tribe because she stayed behind, planning to go later." She smiled as Apollo tried to explain this situation to Boxey while reading. "He keeps trying to win them back to His love, but until recently they had forgotten about God."

"Until that boy - Boxey - simply had faith that God must be out there and must hear him," Monica guessed.

"That's right," spoke Tess. "They believe in the Lords of Kobol, it's a misinterpretation of what they'd learned. The whole family has faith, that's why they're leading the fleet toward Earth, and why God has blessed them. But we have problems, including some warrior angels battling one Count Iblis - you won't have to worry about him, that's another story. And also..." She trailed off., pondering the news of famines and other problems on Earth. "I'd be spoiling the surprise if I went further, Angel Babies. You ll find out. Part depends on what they choose."

Walking on the Galactica, and wishing the ship had good coffee, Monica spied a robotic dog running up to her and giving a mechanical bark. As Monica contemplated Tess's dog, Boxey sprinted up to her. "Sorry about that," he said quickly, calling the dog to his side.

"Nice dog," came Monica's soothing voice. Andrew was completing his work with the civilian government of the fleet, so she was left to do a little caseworking.

"You mean daggit? Thanks. It's just like real except it's a robot so it won't die. It's already been rebuilt once." Boxey paused and said to himself "I wonder if they have creatures like this on Earth."

Do they ever, Monica considered, finding it hard to resist giving away information. "Oh, yes, they do...that is, I'm sure they do."

"Do you believe in Earth," asked the child as Apollo and Starbuck walked up to them. She did. "My grandpa tells me so many stories about Earth. I think it's a real paradise."

She was intrigued that Boxey asked about her belief as some would about God. "It's out there, I'm sure of it." What should I say about the paradise part, she asked herself, finally saying "I don't know if it's Paradise, though."

"I know people who don't believe it exists, they say maybe those signals and pictures are from somewhere else...hi, Dad," came Boxey. "This is Monica. Monica, this is my dad Apollo and his friend Starbuck."

"How do you do," both viper pilots remarked, shaking her hand. From the looks each gave, she hoped neither would fall in love with her. Yet, somehow she knew these men would be part of the assignment.

"I'm from one of the fleet ships. My brother Andrew and I came on board a short time ago, we're biologists, we study how things grow in different climates. I was just telling your son, Apollo, that I'm sure there will be real dogs - what you call daggits - on Earth."

Apollo was intrigued. "What brings you to that conclusion?"

Monica didn't know what to say without giving something away. She simply shrugged and said in her typical Irish twang "I believe in a Creator who made everything. And that He wouldn't have made creatures for some places and not others."

Starbuck glanced at his watch and realized he was due on viper patrol. He excused himself, and Monica walked with Apollo, Boxey, and Muffy back to their quarters. The viper pilot grinned. Here was someone who had equal faith. "Funny you should say that," he considered, "I've been thinking about that recently. Especially with..." He'd not seen Monica in the cave, and so deduced that he shouldn't tell her about the scrolls. But, what could he tell her about? Something had certainly begun to get his attention. Monica, for her part, prayed that she have the strength not to give away anything specific about Earth.

"With what, Apollo?" she finally said. "You know, I've heard things, too - from my Father. He says there may be hidden scrolls telling more about Earth, or us."

Apollo smiled, holding her hand as they prepared to enter his quarters. He felt glad to meet someone he could confide in about the possibility of said scrolls. And, he felt she would understand his keeping them from her. "You know...he might be right. The concept is...very odd to me, though." Monica smiled sweetly, and pretended to walk onward. After a moment, she became invisible and entered the quarters to observe.

"Good job, Angel Girl," Tess complimented her. "I was afraid you'd give yourself away, but you showed him a common interest - and that will help later, if not with you with Andrew. You might have a future in casework yet."

"What's going to happen, Tess," she inquired seriously, a hint of concern in her Irish voice and on her face. "I keep getting all these hints, and yet I can't put my finger on it. And what about when they find Earth - it's not a paradise right now."

"That's something we have to work on, too, the notion that Earth isn't perfect, and doesn't have the technology to help them fight the Cylons. We have to help them see God can win their battles for them no matter what. There are already rumors about Earth's problems, and it's causing quite a bit of worry. If certain things transpire, the more we say about it being imperfect, the less faith they will have. They may not even wish to come to Earth then." Tess sighed. She hated to burden her charge with the spiritual warfare being waged. It hadn't touched this ship yet. However, a number of people in the fleet had begun to lose hope as it was, and now Baltar, a leader of the Cylons, was convincing some in the fleet that there was no hope, and that they should come over to their side. The utter darkness depressed even her. One Lucifer headed up the Galactica's enemies list - and as head of the Cylons, he had been named after the Prince of Darkness himself. Baltar spoke of this Lucifer as being the chief lord of Kobol.' Outer space was witnessing a spiritual battle the likes of which no human could believe.

Yes, she told herself, maybe I should warn her. "Monica, there are major battles for souls here. People are losing hope in Earth. Especially because it has been a legend' for so long. And yet..." She fretted, praying for the right words. "If they learn about the scrolls now, they will either have no faith in them either and defect en masse, or they will trust only in Earth and not in the God who made them and it in His love. Then they would lose faith when Earth cannot provide them what they think it will. Either way..."

Monica smiled sadly. "Telling them the truth will make it worse...but they believe a lie now."

"Their lone records of Earth are from when it wasn't nearly as bad as it would get. And it was much more sparsely populated and tranquil." Tess rested a hand on Monica's shoulder. "Ease them slowly into the reality; and keep them from fearing. You need to strengthen their faith in the Creator, not the planet."

At that moment, Commander Adama entered the quarters carrying the box with the scrolls. They felt quite heavy, but he insisted on carting them himself until he got to their doorway. As the others helped him carry the pile in, he explained in a huff. "The council agrees with me, until we can understand more of their contents, we should tell noone of the scrolls or their existence. After all, they speak of places on Earth where it would be very tranquil, and now they're starting to wonder which is true." He wiped sweat from his brow. "The others merely think I was carrying something top secret for you, Apollo." Tess nodded slowly.

"Nobody - not even Starbuck?!" Starbuck was Apollo's closest friend and a fellow viper pilot. "Surely he should know."

"Now, none of this seems to concern him." Adama sighed. A very practical man, he knew the dangers of letting everything get out. Already, he knew Baltar used previous knowledge to draw some people in the fleet toward him. They needed to remain united. "We have turned away from our faith, we did so even before the Holocaust, fearing our legends were just that. The only thing we clung to was this notion of Earth. Some doubted its existence..."

"He's their commander - sounds like he's helped them keep faith," noted Andrew.

Tess whispered "he and the civilian leadership, yes. Shhhhh."

Apollo shook his head. "Come on, Dad, you never doubted."

"No, but some did doubt either its existence or its perfection. We can vouch for the authenticity of these findings, but what we need is for them to play themselves out." He pulled out a scroll. "Let me give you an example; this is what I showed the leaders which proved my point. I am going to read from the prophet Yanius. He shall be with his troop on a planet of ice, to destroy a large sword which would bring down all of them. His son shall be aboard without his knowledge, and the boy's pet." Apollo's mouth flung open. "They shall bring down the sword, and though the boy shall fear, God shall hear his call, and find him faithful."

Apollo gasped. "That's...remember that ice planet...when Boxey stowed away..." And it was prophesized a couple thousand years ago?! Tess grinned, recalling the occasion.

"See what I mean? Suppose we had known these things before, you would have made sure Boxey did not stow away with you." He smiled at the boy. "I'm sure you remember."

"I do, Grandpa; that's when I remembered stories you would tell me, and I prayed the only way I knew how." He turned to his dad. "I felt a lot of peace then."

"For hundreds of yahren we did not hear from the lords of Kobol," Adama explained.

Apollo shrugged. "So why - I guess I could say why were we allowed to find out now, when we're not near Earth yet?"

Adama leaned back. "Apollo...you ask questions only the lords can answer."

Boxey muttered "I think it's just one God," but the adults paid little attention. Adama considered that they could be - he'd seen some things which seemed to indicate that in the early scrolls. As for Apollo, the warrior was finding all of this very hard to comprehend.

Apollo especially couldn't believe his ears about the scrolls' predicting of events of his life so many yahrens ago. He was used to great feats, to surviving by the skin of his teeth in space battles. He'd never chosen the military life; if he'd had his druthers he'd have been exploring for the sheer sake of learning. However, neither of these prepared him for the work which could lie ahead. "Will it be safe with us...what if there's something I don't like again?"

"Perhaps this is deemed to be the proper time for you. Perhaps now you have enough faith. And remember - it's faith which has brought us all the way here, despite what any of our own abilities have been." Or, perhaps our minds will be closed to certain things to protect us, he told himself. Adama decided he could inform the master fighter pilot of this. "There is a decisive battle looming ahead someday. I read in Issachar last night. The fleet shall reach Earth, but first they shall learn of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But before all this, they shall see a battle unlike any they have encountered...'"

The statement thrilled Monica. She recalled the Lord describing Himself this way. From the many people who she'd led back to God, or taught of God, she sensed that something extraordinary was about to take place. "How will God let them know," she wondered aloud.

Tess grinned. That girl's always looking for hints, she told herself. How in the world can one do their job and let humans make choices if they know all that will happen ahead of time? "All I can to tell you is that this is proof they will one day reach Earth."

Boxey was speaking. "I talk to God a lot. He helps me when you're away, He comforts me."

His dad turned to him. "When you say...God...I don't understand, why not the Lords of Kobol like we all learned?"

"I don't know, but it always seemed like if there was more than one they might argue like people do." He looked at the scrolls. "Isn't that what they say?" Apollo and Adama nodded slowly. Yes, it made sense, from tyhe early writings; indeed, Lords of Kobol was never mentioned. And this, God was who Boxey was calling to?

Tess explained that "the lords of Kobol' is a misinterpretation of their Scrolls - in one of their prophets he speaks of how there is one God manifest in three persons - Father, Son, and Spirit."

Apollo threw up his hands. "This is too weird. This is too weird for me right now." He glanced at his watch. Luckily, he had patrol duty in a short time. "Guess I need to get going." He hastily hugged his boy and fled, all the while thinking about the scrolls, the knowledge, his son, the journey, everything What a crazy day it had been so far.

"Okay, places everyone. Monica, you stay by Boxey for the time being, Adam is going to remain near the basestar in this wormhole, and Andrew and I've got some other work to do." Monica fretted a little, but decided that this merely let her be ready to understand others whenever things got really hairy. Who knew, maybe an opportunity as a caseworker angel lied ahead.

Starbuck's viper appeared alongside Apollo's. "Hey, what's up; you've been awfully quiet."

The other pilot woke with a start. "Huh? Oh, just thinking, I guess."

"That wormhole Boomer found a while back looks pretty good, they think it might get us closer to Earth. Couldn't have come at a better time, huh?" He smiled thoughtfully. "I bet that's what you're thinking about, huh? Or maybe Sheba - you thinking maybe she's the one for you?"

"Yeah, maybe." He gazed at the wormhole Starbuck spoke of - he'd had little time to ponder it with everything else that was happening. Of course, Boomer was close to tying in to more of Earth's communications - that man was a true genius with technical items. He could probably have all of Earth's history downloaded for them by the time they got to the third planet. "Ever think about fate?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sometimes. Like what, about Earth?"

"Yeah, like about Earth, and us. Like those angels..." Oops, he'd let something slip. You're not thinking, Apollo, you're the leader. You're the one who needs to be on top of it all. "Those, whatever, who told me right where Earth was, and now this."

"Yeah, I know, funny, huh?"

Apollo and Starbuck both daydreamed for several moments. Suddenly, the fleet of vipers found themselves surrounded.

Chapter Two

Boxey was studying his homework, as Monica and Meg looked on from the spiritual dimension. "Nice to pull an easy job, huh," commented Monica.

"I'm only here because Joy is off doing the spiritual warfare." She looked upward. "I think it'll only get stranger for a while."

Suddenly, both angels felt trouble lurking. Monica advised Meg to help out those guarding Apollo, feeling she could do this casework business herself. She murmured in Boxey's ear. The boy hustled Muffy into a closet. "Come on, we need to do some serious praying." Where did I learn that word, he asked himself as he began to praying Maybe that's what this kind of talking is - whatever it is, it's awesome, he said to himself.

Yes, it is, agreed Monica, praying that the boy be kept out of trouble, and for the viper pilots to be safe. More than you can imagine. She felt troubled when she learned through a still, small voice that the vipers were all captured. However, even that didn't prepare her for what was to come, as a series of large jolts rocked the ship.

She tried hard to steady several items that could fall and hit Boxey on the head. The boy quickly scampered out of the closet and looked out the door, only to see firefighters rush out to try and combat the blazes. Meg and two other guardian angels entered the room, but Meg quickly left as Boxey also departed. Andrew rushed into the picture and became visible. "I'll take it from here, watch the scrolls," he said to Monica before approaching Boxey.

"What happened, is my dad all right," came the quick queries.

"Don't go that way," Andrew commanded him, "that's where the fire is, where those men are. Come on to the communications section if you need." Boxey followed Andrew, the angel able to see quite a bit of spiritual warfare going on as angels of darkness tried to plant ideas in peoples' heads from the spiritual realm, telling them there was no hope. Meg threw a block on one such angel who was trying to get at Boxey. "Scary, huh," he said to the boy.

"Yeah, this happened once before," answered Boxey as they went up to the communication center. Tess asked what the boy was doing there, and Andrew answered that he wanted to go find help, so this was the best place.

Tess grinned from the spiritual realm, invisible to the others. "I kind of figured - if he mentions an angel helping at one point in the last fire, that was Meg." She pointed out the Guardian Angel standing over Boxey. "She led his dog through some ductwork to get oxygen masks while Joy stayed and watched him. She'd shown herself for a second because someone on the bridge had thought about letting Boxey crawl up there for help, and she was ready. "

Andrew nodded. He showed Boxey some communications signals they'd picked up from Earth. "Old speeches and things."

"Hmmm." He sat in front of a microphone which could be used to broadcast to the fleet. Before Andrew could stop him, he began speaking "First of all," came the young voice, "let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself!"

Tess groaned inwardly as she made her way, visible, to the bridge. Why hadn't Andrew stopped that - she'd warned him the boy would act quite exuberant about helping. Boxey moved on to several of Winston Churchill's speeches as she approached Colonel Tigh. "I'm Tess, I'm from one of the fleet ships, I was near here when the Cylons attacked, can I help with anything?"

"Yeah," he said, sighing. I'd like to send her down where Boxey is, but this is better than nothing. Plus, he doubted anyone could get there from the bridge right now. "Help those people working on Commander Adama, and get him to Sickbay. Then, if you've got medical skills, stay down there; if not, come up here, and we could use some computer help." Tess agreed. Medical, she could handle. Man-made things like computers were beyond her in her human form.

Andrew, unsure of who he'd be helping on this assignment - Tess indicated it was still up in the air - decided to befriend Boxey. "I'm Andrew, you met my sister Monica before. You're Boxey, right?" He nodded. "You sound pretty sure of your words."

"Of course. I know my dad will come back; he always comes back."

Andrew noticed a little uncertainty in the boy's voice. "But you're still scared sometimes, right?"

Boxey chose to admit it. "Yeah, a little. And I think about it quite a bit, I guess. But I know God will protect him."

Is he going to lose his father, or what - give me a clue, Andrew prayed silently. None was forthcoming. Instead of preparing the boy for the loss of his dad, he merely spoke about God. "You say God' a lot; some of the others here say lords of Kobol.' I believe in one God, too."

"Me, too. It doesn't make sense there'd be more than one because then what if they don't agree on something." Andrew admitted that made sense. "Monica says your dad talked about scrolls - what did he say about them?" He wanted to know if it was what they had found.

Andrew explained. "Well, they say God made Heaven and Earth. And that the first man was Adam, and he lived 930 years. "

"That's what we found," came the excited voice before he could stop it. He suddenly realized he wasn't supposed to tell anyone of the scrolls. Timidly, he asked Andrew not to let anyone know he said that.

"Don't worry, I won't. But we can talk about them in private if you have any questions." Uh-oh, he thought to himself, was that wise? After all, he might ask very pointed questions about who his Father was, and who he was. If not him, then Apollo or Adama might. Just then, he received a peace about the situation. This could still work out well. He asked "do you ever think about Earth, wondering how it will be?"

Boxey grinned. "There will be peace, and we will all be happy. There will always be enough food, and we ll have fun."

Andrew felt a little uncomfortable about the boy thinking the Earth was perfect, but he felt Boxey could be told a little more than the adults. Childlike faith was hard to shake. "You know, that sounds more like what Heaven is like." Heaven? "That's where God lives."

"Wow, your father tells you lots of fun stuff."

"Yes, He knows a lot," came Andrew, meditating on God. "I wonder if Earth might have some problems. Do you ever?"

Boxey thought a second. Andrew had learned that Apollo and Starbuck had visited quite a few planets. Earth would be much like those. Yet, he thought to himself, to Boxey, it won't seem so ordinary. To him, meals that didn't consist only of proteins and mushies, or sunrises and sunsets instead of the bleakness of space, would be spectacular. Thank you, he prayed silently, for helping me understand. The boy finally spoke. "There must be something special about it," was all he would say. With that, Andrew decided not to press any more.

Meanwhile, Tess spoke to Adama, who was barely conscious, in Sickbay. She considered whether or not to inform the commander of the presence of angels on the ship. Things appeared bad, but not as bleak as they had been before. Still, she could sense the commander's worry. He knew the scrolls needed protected, he knew his son and a few dozen other viper pilots had been captured. Still, she also realized that he had pretty much faith himself, and that not much would shake it. "Commander," came her soothing voice. "My name's Tess, I'm volunteering here because there are so many injured."

"Yes...this happened...before," he muttered. "Need help...for fleet."

Tess soothed him. "Yes, well, it isn't as bad as last time. God is protecting us."

"Lords of Kobol...one," inquired Adama, with enough faith to make the leap in understanding from what he'd always believed. At least, he told himself, I think I have the faith. Yes, Tess informed him, they were. "Who...is He?"

Wow, what a question. There was so much to Him. She always stood in awe of His magnificence. "God is love, that is the most important thing. He is also righteous - He must punish sin, and keep it out of Heaven so Heaven can be that perfect place there there is no pain, no suffering, no evil. And He hears our prayers, when we talk to Him. He made everything - even the Earth."

"Always believed...in Earth." He began to close his eyes. Tess assisted in surgery, and felt relieved that Adam wasn't around. The Angel of Death would not come here.

"It's real, I'm sure of it." What good fortune, she told herself, to have leaders who believed in Earth, who held such faith that they would set out like this, and not just wander all over the galaxy as some had from their world. And how sad that the Cylons had turned so far away from God. Once God's people, too, they had built machines to destroy humans. She sighed. Someday, they would not have to worry about all this.

Apollo and the others returned soon after the surgery. Adam had been busy - twelve viper pilots had been killed during the raid and rescue operation. Apollo said he noticed a way to destroy the basestar. Tess called Adam, Andrew, and Monica to a meeting on the bridge, unseen by others, and explained the plan. Andrew quickly went down to meet Apollo as he headed toward Sickbay and his father. Apollo refused any congratulations on being rescued, though, remarking that he tried to blame that blind spot in their vipers, but that he knew the real reason they'd been captured was his own daydreaming.

"Thinking about Earth," Andrew inquired.

"You're the second person who's asked that today. Yeah," Apollo commented, "but I wonder...I mean, I believe in Earth, I even..." He considered whether to tell Andrew. No, that was so special, so personal, so hard to describe, only Adama, Boxey, Athena, Sheba, and Starbuck knew. But, the Ship of Lights had been awesome, and had increased his faith - for a time. However, the constant Cylon attacks made him wonder at times, just how real was that, and was it worth it? Could it have been a dream? No, Earth was real, he told himself, it just takes more faith. It has to be real, he reminded himself again.

Andrew realized what Apollo meant. "You're using your own understanding, that's just human nature." And that statement would help when we speak of Earth's imperfections later.

Apollo smiled. "Yeah, true, it is. Boomer and the others stepped out in faith to rescue us."

"I think people have the hardest time when they think; not that thinking is bad," noted Andrew, recognizing that Adama had always been very pragmatic, "but while your dad is quite practical in his thinking, he's the one who believes strongest in Earth." Apollo agreed. "As does your son."

Apollo grinned. Yes, Boxey held immense, childlike faith. As they sat by Adama's side awaiting his return to consciousness, he and Andrew discussed the events of the years since they left their home world. Andrew shared Boxey's broadcast, apologizing for not stopping him.

As Adama awakened, the commander said "I bet the council's in an uproar, they have people wondering how we know it might be the last battle and they don't know what to tell them."

A short time ago, Apollo would have agreed to hide the truth, as he'd begun to comprehend his father's wishes. The notion that he was prophesized made little sense to him. However, times had changed drastically. He'd begun to believe the Cylons would be wiped out quickly, and that Earth may be very close. "Look, you read the scrolls, you know this is a time to test our faith, to stop relying on pragmatism and go for broke! Let's tell everyone, we're going to a great place."

Andrew smiled, thinking of Peter being so boastful of his faith. "And yet, you wonder if you can, huh," came Andrew's calm voice.

"I'd love to," Apollo remarked. "And, deep inside, yes, I believe with all my heart. More than ever before, since we found the scrolls."

The angel looked compassionately at the captain as he tried to implant a little less ocnfidence in the creation and more in the Creator. "But also, then, in Earth's being a paradise. How much, do you think; I mean, our own understanding is faulty..."

Apollo shook his head. "I just know we'll love it." Andrew wondered if the viper pilot truly belived that.

"You sound like what I hear our fighters were like after Boxey spoke; and it was a good speech." Adama moaned. "I just wish we'd had more time to prepare the people. Luckily, Colonel Tigh has reassured them a schoolboy is not leading them."

Apollo laughed, then changed the subject. "Dad...Commander...we've hung an awful lot on our faith in Earth. But I just wonder...I mean, not only Earth, but I believe the scrolls are real, don't you? And they talk about it being wonderful. Sure, that was thousands of years ago, but...it has to be the same, right?"

"They confirm Earth," mumbled the man. Andrew reminded himself to focus their attention on God, not on a planet.

Still, it seemed to be working out well as Apollo mused out loud. "They speak of some joy unspeakable' - is that beating the Cylons? Or what? Can we beat them - I know the end has to come sometime, but it seems our own abilities are faulty, too."

"If God created it," interjected the angel, "God can give any kind of ability He wants. So with His help, it seems like we can."

Adama nodded tiredly. "Several battles...have felt like the Hand of God was with us."

Apollo, however, still seemed a little too focused on Earth as he continued. "Maybe...but what about that joy unspeakable?" He was anxious to find it after so much trouble in his life. "I want to know about that, and I think others do, too. Like Starbuck, who lost all his relatives in a Cylon bombing when he was little."

Adama nodded. "Faith...brought us this far. But that joy may not have anything to do with Earth," noted the commander. "Tired now...we can talk later."

Andrew and Apollo left. "Your father sounds like a very wise man."

Apollo nodded. "He is, I just think..." He couldn't quite explain it. Was it a major gamble? They'd had many battles they thought might be the last, but this seemed so much more definite, so able to fit in with the rest of the scrolls. "Well, I think we've been too unsure for a long time." He recounted a time when Adama had declared that he, too, was tired of running from the Cylons, and their crew proceeded to win against them. "I think that's what we need to do here, instead of being unsure, let's just go right out there and fight them."

"How come you sound so sure of yourself?" wondered the angel. Apollo was going toward the viper bay, so Andrew followed. He still sensed a little confusion in Apollo's voice - and despite what others thought, he wondered if the viper pilot's little outburst wasn't due to defensiveness about his faith.

Apollo explained to Andrew, the assembled viper pilots, and Colonel Tigh that he'd discovered a way to destroy the basestar while he was being taken to the holding cell. There was a small opening which, if one fired directly into it with one shot, would blow the thing to smithereens, as it housed the main component that produced the field in which they and the Galactica and fleet traveled at faster than light speed. One hit, and suddenly the flux would be too great.

However, the chance of going down with the ship was profound. Maybe, just maybe, he could zing right past and go through the wormhole if he couldn't get turned around in time. But it was a very iffy proposition, and he didn't know if anything was close. Yes, the wormhole seemed to take them closer to Earth, but how could one be sure anything lay on the other side. And would he have enough fuel to return? That, too, was iffy.. Still, he was their best pilot, and he wasn't about to let anyone else endanger their lives.

Andrew grinned as Apollo concluded his remarks. "That was a good speech." Noticing Tess in the invisible, angelic realm, he asked "okay, is this my mission?"

"Just get him focused on God, and stay tuned," requested the superior angel.

Andrew jogged over to Apollo as the pilot checked and rechecked his viper. "Have to make sure everything's ready, huh?"

"I've got enough extra supplies to last a while," he explained. "Of course you probably realize, fuel is the main concern. That's if I can get away from any blast, and even that's a real tough call " The angel nodded.

"I ll bet your son's proud of you," noted Andrew.

Apollo was more convinced than ever his son would be okay. "I don't know about this prophetic stuff - but I do sense great faith. That'll never go away, I hope."

"It shouldn t. Your whole family has had faith in Earth for a long time," Andrew pointed out, "and putting one's faith in that naturally leads to other things. Like God. Maybe learning of Him is that joy' spoken of."

Apollo grinned as he prepared to enter his viper. He already looked forward to - hopefully - fulfilling whatever those scrolls spoke of. His mind had wandered back to Earth. The scrolls confirmed its existence - they had to. They'd had other items they thought were from Earth, such as pictures of cave paintings, but this... "You know, Andrew, we're striking them now, while they don't know what hit them as far as the rescue. We should have a very good chance."

As he boarded the viper, and eighty such craft took off, Tess appeared behind him and lowered her head, speaking. "He's a little too sure of himself. He didn't mention God helping them win; he's still focused on Earth; and its perfection. You've tried, though..."

"Was his finding the scrolls a bad thing, then," Andrew inquired.

Tess shook her head. "No, God is the one who awakened Boxey and urged him to look. It just means us angels are going to be a lot busier the next few days."

They launched eighty vipers toward the craft, located inside a wormhole, a shortcut through space. It proved more menacing that any other item because it was tucked inside something in a way which was hard to reach, and yet it could wipe out the entire fleet. With the small fire just now being put out, and much damage to clean up, Adama had wished to wait. However, not only would the Galactica soon be in range, but the leadership was extremely worried. More and more people were questioning the existence of Earth, or its perfection, or were leaving the fleet for Baltar's basestar and for the forces which, Baltar promised, "will destroy Galactica and Earth." Apollo silently agreed with the council - from what he'd seen, they might have the weapons to do just that.

Monica, meanwhile, was following Boxey. Suddenly, the boy scampered into a viper, with Meg following behind, invisible. Monica called to him to stop, but Boxey ignored her, putting his helmet on.

The angel was nearly in hysterics as Tess appeared before her. "Oh, Tess, we've got to do something..."

"We can't, people have to be allowed to choose their own paths."

Monica glared at Tess. "But he's just a child, surely..."

"Don't think God can't use this for His glory, Miss Wings." She smiled. "Besides, haven't you ever heard of a little shepherd boy named David?" Monica fretted, thinking about the bleakness of space, and the ferocity of the battle which loomed. The boy was flying a mere toy, given to him for his eighth natalday. Yes, it boasted some firepower, but her concern for his well-being almost made her step in and intercept the boy. Meg, she could tell, had even more trouble as she followed the boy but didn't appear in the corporeal world to stop him. Tess instructed Monica "just get in your angelic glory and be ready to go into space."

The opening appeared much smaller as Apollo's group of fighters approached it, and a much greater number of cylons than expected swarmed around it. It was as if they knew this was their last chance to stop them before they reached Earth. When Apollo noticed a larger number of craft than expected, both Cylon and a small handful of people streaming from the fleet, he suggested regrouping and determining how best to approach this situation.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, arose a larger problem. Was that who he thought it was on his right? "Boxey, what are you doing out here?" came the rebuke. The boy flew a small viper, equipped with weapons, fashioned so if he ever was out flying with his father and the Cylons appeared, he could fire at them and not be defenseless should one be between him and the Galactica. Not that he was supposed to fly out far enough to allow that, but he was the sort of child who would try.

Boxey learned much about the art of flight from his father, and excelled at it. However, his father was unprepared for what would happen next. Adama suddenly recalled one of the scrolls verses and nodded slowly. "He shall repeat his former feat, this time winning the battle by letting God do the fighting," murmured the ailing man, wondering if Boxey might be in danger. Tess appeared alongside to soothe him.

"Dad, I had to come, you face danger all by yourself all the time," explained the boy. "That man is saying evil things, and telling people we're the bad guys and to follow him!"

Apollo agreed silently that there was great evil there, even without seeing the spiritual warfare, but still...they needed more time. "That's because I love you and I want to protect you," exclaimed Apollo. "It's my job to be out here, you know that!"

Boxey shook his head, displaying his youthful innocence. "If you had the faith that you could do that, you'd fly in there right now, and destroy that enemy base. I could."

"But it's so much harder than I dreamed, you don't understand anything..."

"Who allowed it all to be made, man or God?" God had. "Then let this battle be the Lord's, for there is none more powerful than He who made the world - our world, Earth, every world." With the others in shock, Boxey pressed his turbo' button, very dangerous near so many ships, but something which preventing the Cylons from getting a clear lock on him. The other fighters hastily provided a diversion, unsure of what else to do, as the boy shot straight toward the massive base and fired one shot. Adam, the Angel of Death, having ridden the viper out there, followed the shot into the narrow opening, just to make sure it hit the precise spot. Just like David with Goliath, the shot was a perfect one. The base exploded with tremendous force, destroying the cylon ships and almost sucking the vipers into it as well.

Chapter Three

Andrew nodded slowly from inside the viper bay. Monica had fled to points unknown, Tess was comforting Adama, and Adam - he hated to thnk where the Angel of Death was. Yes, he told himself, being an angel is a lot harder than people think. He waited wordlessly for Apollo, Starbuck, and the others to return.

Guardians now did their work as vipers struggled to avoid the pull. "Turbo, everyone," gasped Starbuck, resisting the urge to scream. Apollo hit his turbo belatedly, unable to speak. He continued to dabble at the edge of the explosion, flying around in search of Boxey's craft. Boomer called out to him several times to no avail. Numerous people watching on the IFB stared in awe at their viewscreens, trying to figure out what had happened. All the vipers scanned the vast stretch of debris fearing the worst. Finally, about to run out of fuel and facing mental fatigue from their heavy concentration on each glimmer from subspace, they called it quits.

Exhaustion hit the crew all at once, and Apollo needed to be coaxed back into the hanger. He wanted to search out there till his ship ran out of fuel. Starbuck, still wishing to hold onto some faith but not wanting to see his best friend die, too, convinced him he should come back to at least refuel before he went out there again. Andrew smiled. That's one bit of work he didn't know if he was capable of in human form; flying a viper. Even as the viper was returning down the long runway into the Battlestar, Apollo broke down in gigantic sobs. The viper bay workers, cleaning up debris from the fire, were scared - after all, they'd let Boxey sneak around them. Andrew assisted the viper crew which was ready to work on Apollo's craft after it landed. Monica will feel even worse, he told himself. She was watching Boxey. But, where is she?

Andrew could think of no words to say. He looked at Apollo for the longest time, pitying the man sitting in his viper. If you would only come out and let God's love console and comfort you, he thought to himself. However, the zombie-like walk and blank stare exhibited by the pilot on the way out of his craft made Andrew cringe. He glanced around to ensure there were no fallen angels enticing Apollo - no, he told himself, this is a case where they don't need to work, Apollo's in enough shock as it is. He couldn't even imagine being told that God loved him would do any good; as the captain trudged to his quarters.

Instead, the angel went over to Starbuck. Starbuck could tell it was best not to approach Apollo for a while. Andrew decided to soothe the sensitive Starbuck, feeling that now that he knew something of the man and his tragic losses, perhaps he could help. Indeed, maybe he could help with Apollo; they seemed like good friends. He put a hand on Starbuck's shoulder. "I...don't know what to say."

"I can't believe what I just saw," came the absent reply.

Andrew sighed. "Apollo's going to take this harder than you can imagine, I have a feeling. Surely harder than I can." The pilot nodded. He wished he could help his friend, but first he had to overcome the shock himself. "What would you do first?"

"I'd get everyone together to help. And that means going to see Commander Adama," spoke Andrew.

Starbuck told Andrew that sounded like a good idea. They reported to Commander Adama in the Recovery area. Perhaps thankfully, he was asleep. Starbuck told the angel "at least it won't get any worse till he wakes up." One thing is good, Starbuck considered, maybe he didn't see or hear anything. Still, people already began to murmur about the battle, and discuss with who had fired the shot. Coming to grips with it would take a while longer.

"I think you need to be here to be the one to tell him." Starbuck agreed solemnly. He remained by his bedside in shock till Adama awoke. By then, news had spread like a wildfire throughout the Galactica and the entire fleet. Starbuck cringed. Why are they assuming he's dead? Then again, why not, it was the same way with my parents, and with so many others. Would anything ever be right?

Not only that, but would this sacrifice - great as it was - amount to anything, or would they once more be fighting in a hopeless effort? He struggled to avoid those thoughts, forcing himself to feel they would see no more Cylons. Baltar was certainly out of the picture.

Andrew finally spoke. "I guess you've had a lot of losses before," he noted gravely.

"I think everyone in the fleet has lost brother, sister...parents...children..." He noticed Adama looking at him, and suddenly the forlorn expression worsened. "Commander..." Starbuck began, choking on the words. Andrew hoped the rumors of Earth's many problems wouldn't cause the man's spirits to dip further than they were. Starbuck continued. "Commander...Boxey took his viper out and got off a shot at the basestar...He destroyed the Cylon craft with one shot...But now...we can't find any sign of him." Starbuck began to weep.

Andrew didn't know if it would be appropriate or not to comfort the stranger, but felt God's love had to be shown here a little. He put a hand on Adama s. "Your son, Apollo, is safe, but in his quarters. He's devastated," came the caring voice.

Adama heaved a huge sigh. Andrew felt his choice had been prudent - Starbuck, not wanting to see more tragedy, had refused to utter the word "dead." So, too, had he, though he didn't know quite why he didn't. The commander spoke lowly. "Keep looking...just in case." It was then Adama told them of the prophecy in the scrolls, and how Boxey had been fulfilling so many things. They listened about the ice planet, and about the fire in space. The memory of the child made Starbuck weep all over again, and now Andrew did, too. While Adama wept, he also showed a little bit of hope in his voice. As he murmurred "all I'm saying is...there's a chance." Words I've lived my life by, he told himself. Just like with Earth.

Starbuck pondered Earth. It had been a legend. And they were so close, it seemed. And yet, could his friend Apollo make it. Or, did any of them want to - would they just starve on Earth, or face just as many problems there as they did now? Starbuck shook his head, the rumored problems of Earth starting to get to him. His past was brought back in stark detail. The hopelessness, the fear. He needed something to hold onto, even if that something was as simple as finding Earth, or - hope against hope - going back out there and finding that boy alive.

Monica, clothed in angelic glory, pondered the vastness of space, and the incredible bleakness, as she flew toward Boxey's spacecraft. Talk about a search and rescue mission, she told herself, I don't think any angel has ever performed this broad of a search. Luckily the Lord guided me.

Boxey didn't recall how long he'd been out; only a sudden jolt as he flew away from the impending explosion, through what was called a wormhole. This linked part of space with another in a shortcut. He awoke, dazed and startled. With total darkness around, he wasn't sure where to go, or what he was doing. The light of the Sol system's sun shone in the distance. Is this what happens when people die, thought the boy as he prayed silently. "God, I'm sorry for the bad things I have done. I know that You must love me, though I have never met You. Can I hear your voice at least once right now?"

Suddenly, Monica appeared, startling him. I must be dead, he told himself, though I don't know what this is. It looks almost like that woman I met on the Galactica earlier...but she's so bright now. "What's happened?" He murmurred "Monica?"

There was very little room for Monica, clothed in white, as she soothed him. Hoewver, she didn't wish to appear any odder by sticking her head out the window. "Be not afraid," spoke Monica in a loving tone. "I am an angel of God."

"W-where am I?" Boxey meekly inquired. "Am I...going to see my mom?" His mom, Serina, had been killed by a Cylon.

Monica smiled sweetly. "You shall someday. She is with God now, in eternal peace. Now, you shall not hear His voice, as He does not normally speak that way to humans. This was necessary for your people just this once." The angel further explained that "you shall speak through prayer, but God shall speak through His written Word, and through the Holy Spirit. You will land on the third planet." She explained where he was to land, and promised that the Lord would guide him with birds. "A man named Peter Henneman will answer your questions, and tell you what to do then."

Boxey wondered if it could be true. He had to guess. "Earth..." She nodded. He grinned, recalling the stories his dad told him, the pictures of the star system, and now the scrolls. "I have heard many legends about Earth. Is it true that there are other humans there; are we from there?"

"Yes, God's inspired word is true. I must go now, but do not fear, God will be with you." Boxey grinned broadly. He'd heard the legends for so long, yet unlike all but a few others, such as Commander Adama, he'd always believed them. The scrolls supported its presence. It was supposedly a paradise. Now, he was to land there. Did that mean he was dead? No, he didn't think so. He felt a little scared as he looked around, the bleakness of space once again appearing to surround him now that the angel had left. He didn't think one could feel scared in Heaven. What would he say? What would he do? Oh, how he wished his dad were here to help him. Oh, please, God, he prayed, fidgeting nervously, be with me here, I'm really scared.

With the computer set on automatic landing, it determined the proper landing angle, and soon Boxey was descending into the lower atmosphere. A flock of birds formed a "v" in front of him, and he chose to follow the birds, descending as they did till he was over a cornfield. He felt like landing there, since there was an open space, unlike the congestion in many parts of the third planet, which many knew only as a pristine legend, a planet without blemishes, or with very few, the more realistic said. Quite a few of the people in the fleet wondered whether it existed at all. He felt like he was landing in a storybook. And, if there were problems - well, his childlike faith told him they could easily be overcome.

Harry Kirok slowed his tractor to a crawl. "What in tarnations," he asked himself as he saw the ship slowing and descending. Must be one of them new-fangled air force planes making an emergency landing, he considered as he detected the touchdown and watched it glide to a stop. He figured he knew why, too; the "plane" had no landing gear that he could tell. Its wings were also unlike anything he'd seen. And, what was that opening in front of the plane?

He left his tractor and jogged over to the viper. "May as well do my good deed for the day, an' see if this pilot needs help," he mumbled, calling to a son who was playing near there. "Jimmy," he cried out, "go tell yer mom we got a new kinda Air Force plane or somethin', I'm gonna offer the pilot some help if he needs. Have her set another plate of that delicious lunch ready for him just in case." After he left, bouncing excitedly at the thought of the pilot of one of those big, fancy planes coming here, the farmer saw the cockpit open and muttered to himself. "A U.S. Air Force plane with ancient Egyptian helmet markings? What in tarnations..."

Having helped Starbuck notify Commander Adama, Andrew decided he'd better go check on Apollo. Where's Monica, he wanted to know. Tess and Adam were working with cleanup efforts, and soon they would depart for one of the fleet ships. The Galactica was his alone for now. He reminded hmself not to push too hard. However, Tess had said that now, they needed to boost the spirits of people, telling them that Earth could be better than they think. He knew before the angel said anything that the ones who needed the most encouragement would now be the leadership.

Having wept bitterly for a long time, Apollo gazed at Boxey's things. The robot dog, Muffy, barked, needing food. Apollo felt like a robot himself as he fed the creature. Walking like a zombie, he mumbled as he laid down the dog's dish. My boy had my gift for exploration, he had my daring spirit, he thought to himself. If only he'd not been so foolish this time.

He grimaced, not wanting to think negatively about him. If only it had been me. I shouldn't be here now. It should have been me. He seized his pilot's papers as Andrew sought admittance to the room. Apollo hung his head as he trudged out of his room. Andrew inquired as to what the documents were that Apollo carried. "Just some things I don't deserve to have," snarled the man.

Andrew walked alongside him as Apollo headed toward the hospital wing of the Battlestar. "Starbuck and I told your dad. I wish I could say something to help..."

"Well, you can't, so don't try," Apollo muttered under his breath.

Andrew pondered what Captain Apollo would say as they overheard several conversations along the way, speaking of the battle, and of Boxey's heroics. Did you see that explosion? I can't believe the kid did that. Do you think he's...really dead? Could this be the last battle - what a way to end. Yes, this is so wonderful - though at such a high price. He pondered what the Lord would do - surely he should say something to the man as they walked together. "It sounds like everyone feels for you," commented Andrew.

Apollo snapped at him. "They'd better be feeling for me! I lost my son!"

"He is at peace now, with God..."

"And what good does that do me here? What good does God or Earth or anything do me here?!" The captain grumbled as he stormed ahead.

Andrew followed Apollo at a distance as he wearily wandered over to where his dad, Commander Adama, sat. Adama tiredly reached his hand up to touch his fighter pilot son's. "Apollo..." he began.

The man hurt too much inside to converse. "Dad, I'm through with flight. Let Starbuck take over as lead pilot for my group, he's a good man, he deserves to lead. I don't."

"Apollo...think this over, there..." He knew from the scrolls there might be hope, but he was too weak to express it, and couldn't explain it very well even if he could have told him. Even then, though - could he come back? He'd been gone longer than Adama imagined he could be. He, too, began to weep.

Andrew could sense Apollo's agony, even before he spoke. "Don't give me that," shot the captain. "I just lost my own son, and you just can't understand what that's like. I know, you've lost a son as an adult, but when he's still a little boy..." He crumpled the papers, flung them down and trounced off, sniffling and ignoring the compassionate glance given him by Andrew. Tess walked up to them in physical form, and whispeed to him to give Apollo a little time. She suggested going over to Starbuck instead.

Andrew did so, as Tess checked on Adama and a few other patients. "Hi, Starbuck," came Andrew's consoling voice. "I understand you lost your parents when you were young. I imagine that was quite shocking."

It was. Starbuck lowered his head. "I've always clung to hope...that maybe my dad survived, there was a chance..." He inhaled deeply and looked into Andrew's eyes, sensing great warmth. "I don't know how much of a chance, and I never liked to talk about it because it's so painful, but you...I don't know, you just seem so compassionate, so understanding."

"That's my job," came the angel's reply.

"I really apprciate it, Andrew, I really do. I wasn't very consolable for the first few days after my loss, Apollo will be the same. Will you stick around, though - can you stick around - to help when Apollo's ready." Andrew agreed. He sensed that was a major part of the mission. "There's something else I wanted to mention...maybe we should talk with the commander..."

"Sure, I think he's okay now, I ll ask the nurse." Tess agreed that Adama could talk for a few moments.

"Commander, I don't know if I introduced myself before, I'm Andrew." They shook hands. "I'm sorry about your loss."

Adama nodded slowly. He'd been thinking about the reports of Earth, considering stories that it wasn't quite a "land of milk and honey." Now, the loss of his grandson greatly increased his pain over thinking that they might not get all they bargained for. Shuld they simply go to the next available planet, even if it wasn't Earth? He groaned. Earth held so much promise, there was so much in their legends, backed up by the scrolls, of how good Earth was. But, then again, were they supposed to go to another place? After all, Earth certainly wasn't perfect. Still, he had to cling to faith...at least,that's what he'd told the council earlier. But now, he wondered.

Too much to think about, he told himself. We don't have to decide till we hit the next planet, do we? Starbuck inquired as to Apollo's state of mind. "He's taking it really hard, huh?" came the lieutenant. He picked up the papers. "Is this what I think it means?"

Adama confirmed Starbuck's thoughts. As the doctor walked over to tell Starbuck to leave so Adama could get his rest, the commander instructed "take over for now...and...keep looking." I don't know what the scroll means, but just maybe...

Keep looking? Sure, for Apollo I'd do anything, he thought as Andrew followed him out into the main corridor. But, where, Starbuck wanted to ask. And, why? And how could he have survived that? But the commander had already fallen back asleep. He glanced at Andrew. "I don't know what your Father would say about this faith that Commander Adama has. But he's right about one thing."

"What's that?"

"Sometimes that's the only thing we have to go on. But that makes it so much more painful when you find out there is no hope." He shook his head as he walked to the viper bay. Tess appeared behind Andrew, giving a knowing grin and perplexing Andrew.

Boxey studied the fuel gauge just to double-check. Yes, he had enough fuel to lift off and go back into the wormhole - but the Earth's and solar system's orbits would mean it wasn't going to be perfectly aligned much longer. He punched in a few calculations and discovered he had a 30 hour window.

That's good, he said to himself. Now, he had time to examine his surroundings. Opening his hatch but not yet ready to depart, he glanced outside at the dumbfounded Kirok. Oh, no, he said to himself, I hope he's friendly. Good thing we learned all that English from the Earth broadcasts, he told himself. I need to find this Mr. Henneman. Could that be him?

Harry stared at the blond-haired fellow in the cockpit. Either the Air Force is admitting midgets, he told himself, or this is a child; and one about my kids' age. But in an Air Force plane? "Uh..." he began, totally confused.

Just like nightmare monsters, Boxey told himself. They're as scared of me as I am of them. He exited the viper still in his suit, still awestruck that after so long on board a ship he was finally setting foot on a real planet, one which housed life. This was a paradise, all right - at least this part. But, what was that blowing in his face - was that what he barely recalled as wind? It smelled so fresh. What were those stalks standing as high as the man in front of him? That's no American uniform, Harry considered as Boxey grinned slightly. "I look for Peter Henneman."

That's my pastor, considered the dumbfounded farmer. "Uh...why?" And who? And what? So many questions!

Boxey had no inhibitions about revealing this information - it was as natural to him as anything. He never expected disbelief if he revealed everything, so in the English he'd learned in school - he could tell that's what this man spoke - he explained. "I Boxey, from Galactica. We have lots of people and are looking for Terra, which some call Earth. We learned where it was and beat all our enemies, and now I am here looking for the only begotten of the Father, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I was told by an angel meet with Peter Henneman and he would say what to do."

Harry had barely heard the rest. His mind remained fixed on the words "looking for Earth." This was too weird to be true, wasn't it? He was human, and yet, here was this ship he'd been flying, appearing nowhere near Earthlike. What else could it be? "Aren't...aren't you supposed to say take me to your leader' or something like that?"

Boxey continued to soak in the atmosphere, as Harry gazed inside the viper. Clearly not from this planet, he told himself. Boxey grew amazed at the birds overhead, the bright blue sky, the brilliant sun, and the little white puffs which he thought might be clouds, from the science he'd learned. Wow, we do nice things in our nature rooms, he considered, but nothing can approach what is here. As he considered the surroundings, he gasped. Awe had overtaken any fear or loneliness. "Angel tell me find Peter Henneman. Where is he?"

Just then, a boy about Boxey's age and size came running up to see them. Boxey thought it might be a child, but was unsure. "Dad, Mom said she'd set an extra table; figured it was a sonic boom she heard. An Air Force plane, that's so cool!" He stopped as he got to within a yard of them and glanced around. "Where's the pilot? Who are you?"

I don't want the military bugging us, Harry told himself. "Tell you in a minute, Jimmy. Go get the tarps I use to cover the equipment in the wintertime, bring as many as you can, we gotta cover this plane." He figured it wouldn't fit in the shed, even if he removed his experimental aircraft and crop duster. The boy complied, running into the nearby shed. "Don't worry, we'll take care of you."

"Why cover plane," came the suddenly concerned youngster.

"Because we don't want too many people asking a kid like you questions, they might not be very nice." He paused. "Uh, you are a child yet, aren't you?" Boxey nodded, but gave his age in yahrens. "Look, I dunno what a yahren is, sounds like something you knit sweaters with," Harry remarked as he, Jimmy, and Boxey covered the viper with tarps, "but I bet you're Jimmy's age or about, right? Say," he thought as a light bulb appeared to flash on in his mind, "how many yahrens till you're grown up?" He didn't know what Boxey would consider an adult, but hearing a number about the same as his present age, Harry nodded. "Then you are about Jimmy's age, I reckon. Listen, I gotta go get him..." He slapped his forehead. "Wait, how do you know English?"

"We hear signals from Earth, find out meanings and learn in school."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I thought it might be one of them universal translators." He instructed Jimmy to take Boxey back to the house to eat, and left for the church.

Peter Henneman, of tiny Christ Church deep in rural Iowa, was deep in prayer. He'd prayed for almost an hour and a half concerning many things, and he truly loved the "mountaintop experience." He thought nothing of how much he could do on his own, however. He merely wished the whole time that God's will would be done.

Shortly after, he began reading the Bible. He found himself concentrating on the flood that wiped out every creature - besides those in the ark - on the Earth. His mind kept drifting back to Tubal-Cain, who had made many things with iron. He began to think...no, that was silly, he told himself. Or, was it? The verse "it is God's will that none perish, but that all come to repentance" entered his head. The Spirit is really giving me interesting thoughts today, he told himself. "How do I connect these - the way I am thinking seems so odd, Lord," he said aloud, kneeling beside his desk, "but only to me, and I want to know if this is from You, what I am thinking. Guide me with Your Spirit, Lord. Let me only think what is true."

At that moment, Monica appeared in the lobby and picked up some literature. Peter rose and went out to greet her. "Hello, new in town?"

"No, just passing through, I enjoy visiting small local churches." He looked up. "I was at Auntie Em's' for lunch today. You are a great and humble man of God." And they serve great coffee, she thought to herself.

Peter blushed slightly. "I try, don't always succeed."

"You never boast of yourself, or of the souls the Lord has touched through you. That makes you special in my book - His too," Monica noted The pastor nodded. "There are people just like you and me on other planets, made in God's image. All who are made in God's image need ministered to by someone who will praise God for it, and not brag to others about it."

"But, aren't we only on Earth?"

"Someone may have come from Earth once, but if they are in God's image they must be ministered to." The pastor thanked her, though thinking the event odd. He went to get more materials for the front desk. How odd, he considered, that that was just what he'd been thinking. When he returned, he decided to peak out the front door, figuring the stranger had to have a car. But, he not only saw no person, but also saw no sign a car other than his had been there all day. Scratching his head as he noticed Harry Kirok pulling up in his truck, the verse that some have entertained angels unawares came to his mind.

Boxey heartily gobbled down his food. He hadn't eaten for a long while, and hadn't had real food in yahrens, it seemed. "You eat like my nephew," Mabel remarked. "I don't know how his parents find enough food for him."

Jimmy continued to gawk. Boxey had explained the situation as best he could, and Jimmy and his dad had confirmed that the viper was not Earthly in origin. However, they still had trouble believing that this boy wasn't human. "I thought Martians were all green," blurted Jimmy.

"I human just like you. My people leave 150 years before great dis-as-ter that killed all but a few people on Earth," explained Boxey, trying to say the word right.

"Noah's flood," inquired a six-year-old girl, assuming Boxey was joking. Her older brother and his friends loved to do such silly things. What is it with boys, she said to herself.

"I do not know. Our scrolls tell of Tubal-Cain, and his work with iron, and the ships that were builded." The others at the table giggled. He's funny, they said to themselves. As Boxey mentioned a couple other names, Jimmy rose from the table and ran over to the Bible.

"Jimmy, finish your plate."

"I gotta look up about that Tubal-Cain to see if he's tellin' the truth," explained Jimmy.

Mabel shooed him away and led him back to his seat, not wanting what she felt was pretending to let him get away from nourishment. "God's word hasn't changed in thousands of years, it'll be the same after you eat." Jimmy sighed, then picked at his food for a little while. "Like it? It's chicken an' dumplings, with some carrots and peas mixed in." Boxey nodded. "If Jimmy doesn't start eating his I'll give it to you, too." Jimmy began scarfing down his food, unwilling to let someone else enjoy this favorite meal of his. "We grow lots of our own food here."

"What tall things?" He motioned with his hand to ensure he'd said the right word.

He had. "That's corn, that's that yellow and white stuff you ate off the cobb."

"Can you show me how to make back on Galactica?"

The family laughed. "God grows that stuff, Boxey," explained the mother. She wrote herself a note. "I'll give you some seeds, though, an' some wheat an' some other stuff, too. You bring your family next time, it's dangerous for you to be flyin' around like that by yourself." She figured this was all an elaborate joke - like her oldest daughter, she knew boys loved to pretend. She enjoyed playing along. Jimmy, having finished his plate, ran from the table into his room, and invited Boxey to join him. "You boys can work on that till the pastor gets here, then while he talks with Boxey, you have chores to do, Jimmy." He nodded excitedly.

First, he discovered in the Bible that Tubal-Cain and the other names Boxey mentioned appeared in their own Bible. Not all the names, but some. And Adam had lived to the same ripe old age Boxey said their Scriptures stated. Boxey finally finished eating, and took his plate and glass to the kitchen sink, as requested by the mother. It must be nice to have two parents, he told himself as he joined Jimmy in the boy's room.

Next, Jimmy pulled out a poster with the solar system pictured on it. It looks a lot like the picture I saw once, Boxey told himself. "Where do you live?"

Boxey wasn't sure. He'd been on the ship so long, he couldn't quite tell. He sadly explained, "we haven't been there in a long time." He sighed heavily. He was beginning to miss his dad, though this new planet still held lots of excitement. I hope my dad missed me this much when he was gone, he told himself. He grinned a little. Yeah, he had to, he reassured himself.

Jimmy scanned the galaxy, and put a hand on his shoulder. "You miss your family, I bet?" Boxey nodded. "Hey, I remember this summer when I spent the whole week at camp for the first time. It is hard. But there's fun stuff here, too." Boxey thanked him and asked what camping was. "Well, there's two kinds. One is a real camp with cabins and counselors and you learn all sorts of fun stuff, and the other is when I have friends over and we sleep out in the backyard under the stars, and listen to the farm animals, and just look at the stars and dream."

Boxey didn't understand the first type, but the second sounded very interesting. "You have friends over and do this? Can we camp tonight?"

Mabel overheard the excited query from her room while collecting laundry . Entering the boys' room, she explained the house rules. Seeing that Boxey was perfectly human made it very easy to accept him, as well as to presume they might be pretending. "In this house the host has to invite you, we don't just ask people if we can do stuff without their permission."

Boxey apologized, and Jimmy invited him to spend the night. "I don't know if you haft go soon, but if you can I'd really like to camp out with you." Boxey agreed, and thanked him for the invitation.

At that moment, one of their younger children, a four-year-old, ran to look out the window. "Daddy's comin' with Pastor Henneman," she announced, her loud, high-pitched voice carrying through the house. She reminds me of a warning siren, Boxey told himself.

Since only Jimmy and Mabel suspected Boxey's true identity - the others, to prevent them spilling a secret, had been told this was just a friend of Jimmy's - Mrs. Kirok hustled the children out to the barn to do their chores together. Boxey stepped out on the front porch, and gazed in awe at Peter Henneman. The man stood six foot five, and looked like a giant; he didn't recall anyone that big on the Galactica. Could this be the one spoken of, that "only begotten?" The boy fell on his knees.

Peter quickly held out his hand. "Don't do that - I'm just a man. You can get up." He inquired into Boxey's presence as the three went into the farmhouse.

As the three sat, Boxey explained. "I Boxey, from Galactica. We have lots of people and are looking for Earth. We found where it was and beat all our enemies, and now I am here looking for the only begotten of the Father, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I was told by an angel meet with Peter Henneman and he would say what to do."

Peter nodded, the similarity to one of the stories in the Bible overwhelming him. "I am Peter Henneman. I was praying in my study, and reading the bible, when one I believe could have been an angel appeared to me, and told me there are people just like you and me on other planets, made in God's image. All who are made in God's image need ministered to.' And then Mr. Kirok came and told me you sought me."

"Who is this only begotten of the Father?'" Once Boxey spoke, the pastor explained God's love, forgiveness, and salvation to him.

Tess and Andrew observed the immense black field with white specks all around. Tess grinned broadly as she pondered God's immense creation. "There is so much mankind doesn't understand."

"Some have wisdom enough to come to the Father," noted Andrew, "but you're right, they just can't fathom His love." He noticed several vipers, barely visible to him in the distance. "Where's Monica," he inquired absently.

"On a very special mission." Tess remarked that Starbuck was once more searching, then explained that a larger problem loomed. "They need to be kept here for a couple days. And their president is coming with some questions about whether or not they should continue toward Earth; the council needs the input of these people so they and the Quorum can choose."

"I thought they all had that faith in Earth," came the angel.

Tess admitted that "they still do, to some extent. But some are beginning to question that, because they've heard Earth isn't Paradise, and because they now worry that they won't be able to provide them with technology to beat any more Cylons. Which they don't"

"Was that the final battle, though?"

Tess explained. "That can be taken a number of ways. But even if it wasn't, they must learn they can trust in God and not machines. So, you know what you need to do."

Andrew felt he comprehended. "Sure, build their faith; they ll listen better to these people than us. But, don't they have to wait anyway, so the rest of the fleet can go through that wormhole, too?"

Tess shook her head. "Perhaps, but remember, they're not sure where to turn. They may feel they're better off ignoring it." And that seemed a possibility now. "Yes, they had faith, but I think the one with the greatest faith, as you've pointed out, is Adama."

Andrew sighed as he walked to the viper hanger. Along the way, he found Tess was right - there were a large variety of opinions being expressed, all of which wondered if Earth was going to be the Paradise it seemed to be in the legends, or if it boasted advanced technology. And, while that might not have been a problem under normal circumstances, now the leadership wondered the same thing, and the military command structure had perhaps the largest doubts of all. He greeted Apollo in the hall as he walked by, but the viper pilot didn't return the greeting; he merely stared blankly ahead as he walked back to his quarters. He's still in total shock, Andrew told himself. He's shut down his feelings because he knows he ll explode if he doesn t. Andrew chose to follow him, turning and asking "is there anything I can do to help?"

Apollo merely lowered his head and remarked "I can't believe he's gone."

Andrew had heard the same reaction occurred when Starbuck was thought lost. There had been more wailing at first here because Boxey was, for obvious reasons, closer than his good friend Starbuck. However, now he was shutting down. The angel offered to assist in any way no matter what it was, but Apollo merely muttered a thanks' and strode into his quarters. It didn't quite seem like the same Apollo, he could tell, but death did strange things to people. He had much experience with that as a caseworker angel.

Meanwhile, Starbuck and several others flew aimlessly around the wormhole entrance. Presumably, until the entire fleet caught up and repairs were made, they would remain outside the wormhole, going through closely together and figuring that Earth lay somewhat closer there than if they went the long way.

On the other hand, Adama considered as he was brought the dreary update, is it worth it? He understood the leadership's position, that going to Earth might not be the best thing, if there are too many problems. But, how did one tell? And, maybe a similar planet, one which could be colonized, lay between them and Earth even with the wormhole shortcut.

No, he told hismelf, stop thinking like that. You began your course toward Earth, you trusted in it for your whole life. Back when you had nothing but cave paintings and a map of a solar system to go on. Don't be deceived, this could be a mistake, right? Couldn't there be two planets named Earth? Of course. Anything was possible. True, their faith had been shaken a little as they learned different things over the pervious few days, but what if Earth was just like the other worlds they'd visited? Didn't that make it still far better than a world ravaged by a thousands plus yahrens of war, a planet now completely destroyed? No, it wouldn't have the advanced technology to beat any future Cylon attacks, but so what? Maybe paradise means something different than we've been thinking.

Still, when people expected Paradise, to give them something less was...well, it would be very hard. But, it would still be the pragmatic thing to do. They knew where it was. They knew it held life. And, they'd set their sights on it long ago. There were others who'd gone to different worlds, but this wasn't just a pipe dream they'd had about reaching Earth. This was a hard and fast goal.

Outside the Battlestar, the viper squadrons continued to roam randomly, their search patterns having dissolved after a while. What are we doing, Starbuck wondered. Why do we keep looking - the debris from that basestar has dissipated, there's nothing here. He attempted several times to radio Boxey's viper, but it was useless. If I'm doing this, he said to himself, what's Apollo doing? Probably calling out from his quarters in agony in the middle of the night. He's living the nightmare I lived as a child, only more so now, since we adults are supposed to be so good at hiding our emotions. He hung his head, wishing something could be done. Still, there was no way he'd survive this long, was there? Unless...no, it wasn't possible to cross it and go to Earth, was it? Not that he knew. And, while the field was turned off now, with the Galactica at a standstill, that didn't help the situation as it was back when the battle took place. Perhaps the shock waves from the explosion did something?

You're thinking too much, Starbuck, he told himself. It might be healthier than what Apollo's feeling, but isn't it the same thing we're dealing with? And yet, his own childhood had been so difficult, he needed something to hold onto. Something on which to hang his faith. He'd felt the scrolls would provide it - a valuable missing link in their history. But, now? After he'd seen a child...did he dare admit it? Give his life? And what of Earth - would his faith in that dream, that pristine planet, also be shattered someday? Was it in the process now?

He ordered the squadron back into the Galactica. We may as well face what we saw, he said to himself. And he began to cry, as well. He hurt not only for Apollo, but for himself, the pain of his past catching up to him. And as he pondered what he'd seen, he began to wonder if Earth, too, would turn out this way. It had to, didn't it?

Andrew met Starbuck in the viper bay, the lieutenant still weeping. "No luck, huh?"

"No luck, and no hope," mumbled Starbuck. "I know what I saw but..."

"You haven't found any debris that's his for certain," Andrew remarked.

"No, but we've gone out there quite a few times, and been all around the ship." He shook his head. "You don't know much about vipers, do you?"

"Can't say that I do."

"Well, even if he never used any fuel, or let's say he went to the other side of the wormhole and back, which is possible, I suppose, he'd still have the problem of food, water, and oxygen. He's gone enough he could still be out there, but very weak, without the first two. But the third, there's no way." The voice sounded more hopeless than it had been before, but Andrew noticed a glimmer of hope still in it.

The angel chose to cling to that. "You've kept a great deal of faith, haven't you?" He had. "Looking forward to Earth, huh?"

"I used to, but..." He trailed off, starting to walk again, with Andrew beside him. "Lots of things have been happening the last few days."

Andrew considered revealing himself as an angel, but thought the time wasn't quite right. "What's the thing that bothers you the most about what you might find - what are you afraid of the most?"

"For me, it's rejection." Starbuck smiled. "It's funny, I've lost so much in my life, I need to be accepted. But I've always had this nagging thought - what if Earth people don't accept us as their brothers and sisters? I mean, it's possible, right?"

Andrew prayed silently. "I think God will make sure they do; He ll send angels to assist if He has to."

"Whatever. I never told anyone that, but...well, you understand, don't you?"

"More than you realize," came the warm, compassionate grin.

He must have lost qute a bit himself, Starbuck pondered. "It's not something I thought about much till recently. Now, with others, it's something different. I know a few people who have really felt the pinch when we ve had food shortages; we feed the children first, then families, so soemtimies some of us go with a little less than our body needs. With others, it's the space - they all were hping they'd have enough room to live comfortably. Of course, one hope we had perhaps dashed is that the technology would be advanced enough to beat the Cylons - that worries quite a few people, and they're the ones who are most worried now and ready to go elsewhere, because they didn't have a huge deal of faith to begin with." He apologized for rambling. "You don't want to hear my problems. What about you?"

Andrew knew this was an importnat time to speak. "I'm not worried about what you ll find on Earth. I think God will be faithful, since you had enough faith to search," Andrew told him. "And that He can win battles against the Cylons by Himself." He chose not to mention the last miraculous win out of respect.

"But at what price," Starbuck wondered aloud, remembering his parents as well as thinking of his friend.

Andrew sighed. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" was not the right thing to say. Neither was a reference to Heaven really the best thing - they were still in the flesh. Was Starbuck starting to feel Earth would be imperfect? Perhaps. "Look," he maintained, "I know this war against evil has been hard; it's been hard on all of us." The angel continued. "But God is a God of love, of mercy. Not the Lords of Kobol' like you've thought, either; that's something you thought you understood because you used human wisdom."

"I guess that's something that confuses me, too; He's one God?" Andrew noded. "Does He always love us? What about all these wars?"

"God loves you more than you can imagine. The wars and things come about because of human choice. That choice is something even angels have trouble dealing with sometimes."

The viper pilot stopped to remember how much love he felt from his family on board the battlestar. It was a wonderful notion; one he wished he could explore further. "Maybe you're right," Starbuck agreed as they made their way to the bridge. Colonel Tigh stood there, along with President Adar, their presence prevent Starbuck from asking any questions about how Andrew knew the things he stated, things which made the Earth legends pale in comparison. "Mr. President, this is Andrew, he's a biologist. Just came aboard a few weeks ago." They shook hands.

"I met him briefly earlier, yes. I was hoping to to get some idea of the flagship's feelings regarding Earth." The president smiled apologietically. "I know it's awkward, with Commander Adama in the hospital still; I was hoping to get input from several others. I suppose Apollo is still grieving the loss of his son," spoke the man sadly.

"Agony is more like it, Sir," Andrew noted.

"I lost a number of close family members in a Cylon attack," explained Adar sadly, "so I know it will be very hard."

Andrew knew Starbuck and Tigh were the ones he wished to hear. However, he also realized that his input could, at least, be useful. "I think you understand then, Sir, the importance of not making rash decisions during a time of loss."

"A wise statement, Andrew," he agreed. "Which is another reason I think Colonel Tigh and Lt. Starbuck will be of assistance; not that you two don't feel the loss," he quickly added, "but while you were perhaps closer to him than a lot of people, to you it's not as devastating personally. It's more the fleet's feeling - merely great shock and sadness."

"I will support my commander on this," Tigh remarked.

Andrew nodded. "I think we all do. He's a very wise man, prudent despite being of such faith. That means he must have seen some good in Earth, and will no matter what is found."

Starbuck had been vacilating, but began to realize that his faith was important. He needed to say he'd had faith in something. Yes, the pain would be great if he found Earth wasn't a paradise, didn't have the right technology, but what if he didn't put his trust in it? He'd be regretting it his whole life. And, he didn't know how much longer it would be till they found another world.

Hence, he agreed with Tigh. "I say we need to keep going toward Earth; we can always resupply and go from there. And, maybe we'll find it's not as bad as we're afraid of; maybe we're meant to find it, and once we get there...who knows what's in store, just like Andrew says. We can't afford to miss out. There's a reason we've survived so many losses."

Adar smiled. "Yes, those are good points, especially about the faith, and I shall bring them up, along with yours, Andrew. Adama, for now, believes it would be a tragic mistake to fail to reach Earth, since that is what we set out to do in the beginning. I believe that will be sufficient." He seemed satisfied. The president had also come, of course, to pay his respects to the family, but mostly, he wanted to see the reactions, to determine if the faith was still there. He found that it probably was; though he sensed a little wavering. They were more willing to follow Adama than anything. Perhaps we will wait till the fleet catches up and the family mourns, and then make a decision. He knew he could buy them that much time with the Council and the Quorum.

Boxey and Jimmy lay in sleeping bags on the back lawn of the farmhouse. Mr. Kirok had shown Boxey how to use a camera, and he'd taken several dozen photos. Those had been taken to a one-hour photo processing lab, and other pictures from their albums had been taken to get copied. What fascinating creatures these are on this farm, Boxey considered, a little saddened. Not only dogs, but so many other interesting things. He hoped he'd be able to convince Apollo to live here on Earth with him. His dad loved space travel, though. Perhaps too much to ever settle down. But, he would do it. To God, he prayed claiming a farm which was up for sale. That will be my land, dedicated to You and Your great creation, and used for Your glory, he murmurred, still in awe of the great beauty out in the open. He never imagined anything quite like that sunset he'd seen; there had been so much smoke from attacks when he was little, he couldn't recall ever seeing a true sunset before now.

"You got that almanac I gave you in your ship," Jimmy wanted to know.

"Yeah," he remarked dreamily as the crickets chirped. They heard a car pull into the driveway. Soon, an air force officer was walking behind the house with Mr. Kirok and a sheriff's deputy. Monica was with the deputy, acting as a reporter riding along to cover the average day of a policeman in that area.

Chapter Four

Boxey cringed slightly; he'd heard that these people with uniforms might not act very nice if they found out he was an "alien." But, he wasn't, was he? Of course not, he was as human as any of them. If they believed their Bibles, Peter had said, they would know Boxey spoke the truth when explaining their common ancestry.

"What have we here," gruffly inquired the officer, Monica considering several answers.

"Oh, this is my boy Jimmy, he's camping out here with..."

Jimmy didn't wish to lie, so he jumped right in and said "Boxey."

"That's an unusual name," remarked the officer.

"Lots of parents use unusual ones," explained Mr. Kirok. "Boxey here is...a cousin, from Montana."

"He's from Galactica," explained Jimmy, thinking of the battlestar's name as that of a planet.

"Yeah, yeah...Galactica, Montana. Really small town, you won't find it on a map," elaborated Mr. Kirok. The man tried to explain the name. "Kid earned his name, always played in boxes when he was little. You buy him a toy, and he'd only play with the box." You're getting crazy, Dad, Jimmy said to himself. I can see what I sound like when I try to lie sometimes.

"People have been calling saying they heard a sonic boom," explained the deputy. "And saw a weird looking ship near here. But, the Air Force says it doesn't have any new kinds of planes."

Jimmy got tired of hearing his dad stammer. He also sensed the officer had walked right into a trap with that statement. Before he could say anything, Monica interrupted. "Well, of course, they say that, if it's top secret I don't expect to hear, would you?!"

"Well, I..."

The officer rescued the policeman. "We don't have anything, but we picked something up on radar for a short time, and we traced it here..."

Jimmy rose from his sleeping bag. "Of course, that won't be the official story, it can't be. Because, Sir, if you think the Soviets or Chinese or whomever made it clear out here to Iowa, you need to be checking your coastal defenses before anything."

"Well, it's just that..." He didn't know if he should say UFO or not. "Well, if it wasn't for the sonic boom, we would figure like the deputy and Monica here say, it was some city slicker who didn't know what a crop duster was. But..."

Mr. Kirok recognized what Jimmy was doing. He chose to burst out laughing. "Oh, yeah, I know - little green men from Mars." This was better than lying; hopefully it would work. Still, Boxey had needed to be from somewhere! "Well as you can see, Boxey here is perfectly human, and besides, what would green men from Mars be doing in an Iowa cornfield? They'd go where the action is, like New York City. Why, some of these people you see on TV are so nutty, you'd swear they were aliens, wouldn't you? All those rings in their noses and those tattoos - gross!" He made a face. Boxey shook his head. He still didn't feel like talking, but he was much less frightened now. "Isn't it nutty what some people do?"

"It sure is. Look...we're just concerned because of that sonic boom." He turned to Boxey. "You didn't see any unusual planes on the way over, did you?" He didn't think he had - but then again, he wasn't quite sure what a "plane" was. Still, he figured the safe answer was "no," so that's what he said. "How about you?" Jimmy hadn't, either.

As the deputy and sheriff went over to the car to confer, Boxey asked quietly "how do I get out of here - will they look for my viper?"

"Once he leaves, the only thing you'll need to worry about is the noise. And I've got an idea on how to explain the noise," whispered Mr. Kirok. As the men returned, he spoke to them. "You know, it would make a lot more sense if you'd just act like the official story is the real story. You come out here and ask around about little green men, and you'll blow your cover. Do you check to see if thunder is really a sonic boom every time?"

"Well, no...look, I understand you fly experimental aircraft, one of our choppers flew overhead and saw something that might be one, but there was a large, flattened out..."

"Oh, yeah, our kids love to play like they're from another planet. You can ask my wife." In fact, the officer had asked her. "Well, then, you can understand why that's there; a little trick to play."

"Maybe." He considered asking to see the aircraft - it sure didn't look like a Cessna was under that tarp! Still, the Kiroks had a point. Sticking to the official story made a lot of sense. Besides, there were no "little green men" here. He silently bade the people farewell, and Boxey breathed a huge sigh of relief.

As they settled back down in their sleeping bags, Boxey gazed up at the stars. "That Monica who was with them - she's an angel."

"Realy?" This sounded too bizarre even for Jimmy's imagination. "But she didn't have wings."

"Who says angels have to have wings? We've never heard those kinds of stories," Boxey told himself. Jimmy could think of no good answer. Boxey continued. "I guess it's not quite the...Paradise like my grandpa said our legends tell us." He'd heard Peter speak of the increasing degradation which plunged Earth into God's judgment, along with the Redeemer who saved the people. He didn't really understand the part about the flood, and how the world changed However, he added "it's still a nice place, this Iowa. No thousand yahren wars like on our world."

"Yeah. Sleeping out under the stars really is fun. I wish I could go there with you," Jimmy fantasized, picturing all sorts of wild exploration, and many amazing discoveries.

"Trust me, it's much better here, where there is peace." He sighed. "I do miss my Dad, though. I ll go back early tomorrow. After the rooster wakes us up." What an amazing concept, thought the lad. Who would have expected anything like it?

"Like my dad says, if you start to get low on fuel, just come back here. I'm sure your dad would rather have you safe here." Boxey smiled. This was what family was supposed to be like. This was what he'd longed for all his life.

Andrew solemnly listened as plans were made for a memroial service. Tess walked up beside him. "Not exactly what they expected a week ago, huh? There's still lots of shock here."

Tess nodded. "God's angels are used to dealing with people who's lives are turned upside down by one moment. It's the love of God that gets them through, that's what we have to show."

"How did the leaders sound when they met?"

Tess shrugged. "Well, of course, it was quick, just a short informational thing to hear their president. I think they want to wait a little while before passing judgment, maybe see if a few more signals from Earth can be picked up."

Colonel Tigh happened to overhear Andrew and Tess speaking. He joined them at the table. "You know, it's really sheer luck that we get certain signals; there are lots of directions that they can bounce off. I think the council really senses the desire by the people to think this over."

"God allows to be sent whatever signals He wants," noted Tess. "His power and ability are awesome."

Andrew wouldn't allow Tigh to get a word in edgewise. "That's probably wise, until the rest of the fleet catches up to us."

"Well, we could have another problem." Tigh folded his hands in front of him. "The wormhole's losing stability, likely because of that explosion. It could collapse."

Tess knew it had to stay open for God's plan to work. "Is there a way to keep it opened? At least a little while longer?"

Tigh grinned. He could tell she wasn't a physicist. "God may have the power, but I don't think even ten battlestars have that kind of power." He thought to himself. "If you're thinking can we keep it open till the fleet catches up and we go through, maybe. Then again, I don't know. We might still not receive any more signals. They're like..." He tried to think of an analogy.

More accustomed to Earthbound things, Andrew explained this way. "I don't know if you ve ever played with a radio set, Sir? But if I understand you right, it may be like how someone on one continent - one large land mass - can receive a signal from across an ocean if the atmospheric conditions are just right, if the radio is on the precise setting, and not a smidget above or below it. And maybe then, only for a very short time."

Tigh smiled. Yes, back on their home world, he had heard of that. "You know, that's exactly it. And maybe that's why I'm willing to tell you this...I just sense, I don't know, some extra wisdom, some grand abilities to understand and comfort others. Everyone else talks about it, too" Colonel Tigh sat back and licked his lips. "I can't explain it, but I feel like you grasp the situation far beyond what we can ever hope."

"It's all because of our Father," Tess spoke.

"I would love to meet Him."

"Don't worry, you will one day," came Andrew's soothing voice.

"I shall look forward to it. But right now, we must contemplate getting started on our way again. The fleet shall have caught up with us rather quickly, and there is enough of a food shortage that I don't know how much longer we can wait."

Tess quickly jumped in. "Hopefully, you can stay another day or so - till after the memorial service."

Tigh grinned. "Starbuck been thinking about going out there again," he tried to joke. "Seriously, I think we all know there is little hope - nobody has picked up anything on sensors." He paused a moment to reflect. "But, yes, I suppose till after the memorial service would be appropriate." He thought of the numerous times he'd gone to inform Boxey his dad was returning. If he'd ever had to tell Boxey Apollo had been lost, they would probably have stopped, too, out of reverence for the lead viper pilot. The irony hit hard.

"Maybe then something launched into space, sent out in a viper or something," considered Tess. Tigh agreed that some sort of capsule could be created, and then departed.

Andrew turned to Tess. "Why the need for the wait? Will there be another signal from Earth or something?"

Tess didn't wish to inhibit Andrew's ability to express remorse with his "fellow Galacticans" over the loss. Had Tigh been more insistent, she would have revealed herself in her angelic glory - Tigh knew there was something different, so that wouldn't have caught him too much by surprise. As it was, she elected to keep Andrew in the dark for a while longer. "Something fabulous," was all she would say.

Boxey inspected his assortment of photos, seeds, Earth reference material, and a small number of Bibles to be copied and passed around. He observed the uncovering of his viper as if it were a ceremonial unveiling. That ship looked great to him. Maybe I've got a little exploration in me, he told himself, though living on a planet for a while would be great. "Is that a normal...Galactican craft?" he heard Mr. Kirok say.

"It's smaller, but it does the same stuff. Like a toy," explained the lad. As he climbed into the viper, Boxey waved to the Kiroks. He knew he couldn't fly the craft very well himself, but the computers would help - a little. And unbeknownst to him, once airborne Monica would assist.

Jimmy sensed the timidity. "A little scary, huh?"

"Yeah." Boxey grinned. "I wasn't supposed to fly this when I did; I guess I was lucky God wanted to use me like this." He realized he had no idea what he'd tell people first about Earth. Besides Jesus, there was so much else amazing that he'd learned. And what of it not quite being a paradise - that wouldn't come until what was termed "the Millennial reign of Christ." I see why adults have trouble with these things, he told himself. Maybe I'm finally starting to understand my dad a little. He studied the control panels, and input instructions into the computer as best he could.

Jimmy had run back to the house, and brought out a small stuff dog. "Here, my grandpa made this for me," he told his new friend. "You can have him. His name's Muffy."

Boxey was amazed. "My dog's named Muffy, too. He's just a robot, but he's close enough." The boys laughed at the coincidence, and Boxey waved goodbye to Jimmy and his dad. They backed up, and soon the computer was sending the viper over the meadow, toward the cornfields, and up into the air. Mr. Kirok patted Jimmy on the shoulder, praising him for his thoughtfulness. The viper whooshed down the center of the cornfield, rising toward the clouds with a tremendous roar.

Commander Adama couldn't watch the portion of the service where the battle was shown. The service would be broadcast on the IFB, and most everybody in the fleet would see it.

After numerous crying spells, Apollo had grown rather cold and stone-faced as the time approached His agony reminded Starbuck of what he'd gone through as a child, losing his parents. No, he told himself, you don't want to bring back those painful memories. This is hard enough, seeing your friend suffer. Andrew sat beside them, listening to Colonel Tigh welcome the gathered throng and mention in passing the fight to rescue the viper pilots which occurred before the fateful encounter.

Apollo turned away and closed his eyes as the Cylon basestar exploded. He relived it constantly. Why couldn't that have been me, he once again asked himself. First Serina, and Zac, now Boxey. When will this madness end? Only after the film did Commander Adama enter, walking gingerly. He sat beside Apollo and winced, partly in physical pain, partly mental, noticing his son's anguish. He put an arm around him but said nothing. People had kept quiet out of respect when he was around, but he knew what they spoke about - the sacrifice, the victory, the thought tht perhaps this was the final battle. All that seemed so hollow now.

Once again, his mind drifted to Earth as various people spoke. Would the discovery of Earth be hollow as well? He could tell Apollo sensed it - the viper pilot now wondered if the vision he'd had wasn't supposed to indicate they were supposed to be turned away from Earth. Adama agonized over that possibility - he'd dreamed of Earth for an incredibly long time. He couldn't imagine turning away from it, but sometimes it felt as if he were the only one with faith left in the fleet. Maybe we'd just been too lucky, he consoled himself. Maybe this was too much of a shock, to see a child blown away by those dastardly Cylons. But, we'd all faced death before, hadn't we? Yes, but now we're facing it with the knowledge that Earth had problems, that it wasn't going to be 40 acres and a mule for everyone. It might not have any more advanced weaponry than we do. Things had changed somewhat since they'd last heard of Earth, maybe too much for them. No, he told himself, you have to keep the faith. Earth is out there, and it has your name on it.

Apollo stood up, went to the podium, and stood speechless for a couple moments, replaying thngs in his mind. Why couldn't I have had more faith, he asked himself. Why couldn't I have done something. He broke down again. "I'm sorry, Boxey," he gasped as he made his way down the podium again, collapsing in his father's arms. Adama nodded slowly. This will take a long time for all of us to get over, he told himself. Athena managed to speak a little, as she'd been preparing school lessons concerning Boxey, who had already grown to legend status. She would have to tell this to schoolchildren tomorrow, after all.

"What a way to reach Earth, if he did make it," mumbled the commander. He considered the "ship of lights," where someone - probably an angel, as described by the prophet - had told Apollo the exact location of Earth. He hadn't known his son was dead for long enough to mourn. He'd lost others, but as Apollo had said, this just wasn't the same. This was a child.

Apollo hadn't paid attention to the comment, but Andrew recalled it. It was hard for him to hide his grin after Tess had told him of Boxey's impending return. Andrew walked up to Adama. The commander was being checked before being released for bridge duty. "You think it's possible he reached Earth?"

"I don't know how far it is," explained Adama, "but that is one hope I cling to. And it's one perhaps I'll live to find out, perhaps not. But, I do know there are forces greater than we out there, helping the brothers of man to survive." And maybe that's why I intend to press on to Earth, he told himself; because no matter what, we have help..

Andrew sorely wished to be able to tell Adama the truth - that he was an angel. However, angels normally didn't reveal themselves in front of all these people. Besides, he didn't want to shock Adama too much - he would already be shocked in a little while, provided everything went well. Hence, he simply agreed. "God has a plan. And sometimes it's very hard for people to understand. But His plan is perfect, and ever loving and compassionate."

"It will be hard to explain that to Apollo...it is hard for even me to believe." He sighed. "But if we've stepped out this far toward Earth, then perhaps I can believe that, too." Though I wonder now how much is true of the legends sometimes, even with the scrolls, he admitted. But, that's just because of my loss - our loss. He reminded himself again, don't do anything rash.

"Believe me, Commander, it's hard for any mere mortal to fathom."

"I can tell you and Tess know a great deal about that God spoken of in our scrolls, who we mistook for the Lords of Kobol. I shall be anxious to learn more sometime." They started toward the bridge.

"Earth is still a very worthwhile target, despite its problems," Andrew reassured Adama.

The commander nodded. Yes, there were murmurrings, people who wanted to abandon Earth, or at least who wanted to forget about going through the wormhole. The second was soemthing he'd considered was probably needed, though even that he hoped he wouldn't have to do. Events might warrant it, though. The first - well, of course, he'd alwys believed in Earth. He couldn't see abandoning it now. "Thank you. I shall highly consider that." But, will the leadership be willing to go along? He hoped so. There had to be something special.

Andrew left the bridge and went down to the viper bay. The others were still too shocked to launch later that day. Adama was still rather weak, and Apollo didn't care if he never flew again. Therefore, it would fall to Starbuck to eject a ceremonial bouquet and several other items from his viper. He was glad for the duty, if only to allow him to cling to hope a little more. Andrew now knew his precise purpose - make sure Starbuck stayed out ther long enough to see Boxey coming. "Going to be a tough flight, huh?"

Starbuck nodded grimly. "I don't know if I really want to do this; it seems so pointless, and we could do this from in the ship. But yet, part of me..." How would he put it into words?

"Thinking about Boxey - or your own family," the angel inquired. "You know, this life isn't all there is. God is in Heaven, a place of perfect love."

The viper pilot smiled. Such a great story - just like Earth. And I'm beginning to believe just through faith, like I did in Earth. And, I guess, still do, in a small way. He shook his head, still stunned at the feelings of warmth. "I don't know why, but I feel like I can confide so much in you; you seem so understanding. Yes, this is probably the loneliest I'll ever be, even when I lost my parents there were others, and by being a great viper pilot or something else I could excel and get noticed." He stopped and observed the technicians stuffing the bouquet and capsule into the fornt ofthe viper, to be fired toward the wormhole. "But here, even thinking about God..."

"Think it'll be worth another look," Andrew wondered.

Starbuck wished it were. He clung to hope, anyway, even though he felt it was ridiculous. Hope was something that never had to die. "Yes, I suppose I've got a little faith left - just like there's someone I've always sort of hoped might possibly be my father..."

"Commander Adama," guessed Andrew.

The pilot smiled slightly. Other times, he would have laughed. "No, not Commander Adama. Not possible, though Apollo and I are kind of like brothers; actually Boomer and I are even closer." He grinned. "It would be nice, though. I take it your Father is still living?"

"Oh, very much so." The viper bay workers had left. Andrew wondered if he could tell Starbuck now. "He is full of love, compassion, and mercy. Especially for those who have been hurt by so much tragedy, such as yourself and the others of the fleet."

Starbuck wasn't sure he dared to ask. "He seems to know a lot, from what you've said. What does he do? Does he know what Earth's like?"

Now is the time. Andrew suddenly transformed into radiant splendor, brightening greatly and with a halo. The sound of doves echoed around the viper bay. Starbuck gasped with awe. "Yes. I am an angel of the Lord, and God is my Father."

Starbuck's mouth seemed prepared to have a viper thrust into it. "An angel? What...why? Are there more..." He recalled the Ship of Lights. "Was it you..."

"A colleague, named Adam. He was here for a little while but had another assignment. Tess and Monica are angels, too. We came to help you and your people keep your faith for a few days. Go now, and wait outside near the womrhole for something very special."

Starbuck hurried up and sped out into space, though he couldn't fathom what might be on the horizon. An angel? He tried to put the entire series of events into perspective. The vast realm of outer space still seemed rather bleak and lonely, and he longed for Apollo to be able to fly this mission. Maybe Andrew could console him a little better than he could - no wonder he d appeared so loving. Then again, he worried his friend might do something crazy like flying off looking for the boy if he did. And, Adama was too weak to really fly a viper well. It would be hard for Athena, too, since she'd also been family. The silence was deafening as he flew; he could almost hear his own hearbeat.

He maneuvered his lone viper as close to the wormhole as he dared, wondering where the best spot to shoot the items would be. He scanned the opening, devoid of most light, and wondered if this was a good location. It sure looks lonely, he thought to himself, but what part of space doesn't. Maybe it'll make it to Earth someday. He sat there, pondering the vast expanse, not a sound anywhere. I can see why Apollo's taking it worse, he told himself. This is bleak out here. His boy didn't even have the dignity of a warm, cozy planet.

Suddenly, he thought his onboard computer was malfunctioning. He was picking up something from inside the wormhole. Could it be a Cylon - no, they couldn't have survived this long without refueling, and this was moving. He tried to watch for its appearance, but before he could see anything, he heard a voice. "Galactica, come in, do you read me," it said.

Starbuck nearly jumped out of his seat. He banged his head on the cockpit ceiling, and cried out "Boxey...is that you?!?"

"Yes, is that you, Starbuck? Go, tell everyone - and my dad - that I've been to Earth. And do I have some great stuff to tell you!"

Starbuck zoomed into the docking bay, and almost got out before his ship was done moving. He called the bridge via a wall panel and asked for Commander Adama. "Commander... come down to the viper bay...bring Apollo..." He was speechless with excitement. Adama, unsure what was happening, and not wishing to disturb the grieving man, chose to venture down himself. Starbuck searched for the angel, but found him nowhere. Instead, Andrew and Tess were observing out of sight, in the angelic realm. Monica, having followed the viper from Earth, joined them.

Starbuck watched at Boxey's viper sped into the docking bay. Gasps of amazement filled the bay as the boy hopped out of his viper and ran over to Starbuck, the two embracing in a hug that Starbuck wished could last forever. Finally, something in his life had been worth keeping the faith. Something he'd thought lost could come back. As for Boxey, he was just glad to be home - though he most longed to see his dad and grandfather. He really liked Starbuck, too, but he was just a great guy - just like that Mr. Kirok had been.

Starbuck considered it best to ease Adama into the reality of Boxey being "back from the dead," so to speak. However, Adama noticed Boxey right away, breathed a huge sigh of relief, and quickly knelt down and awaited Boxey as he ran into the man's arms. "Oh, Boxey, you're all right." He wept as they embraced, still amazed at the situation. He thought the boy could have possibly reached Earth. He never imagined he'd return to them. It really is him, came numerous murmurs from the viper bay crew, as their shock gave way to excitement.

"I made it, Grandpa, I made it all the way to Earth," he exclaimed.

"Earth..." Adama had told the boy so many stories about it. He couldn't imagine the excitement over being the first person there. How had Boxey taken it, he wondered. Did the boy fully comprehend the feat? How advanced were they? Suddenly, several prophecies from the scrolls began to come to mind. About one reaching first. About someone being lost three days as a sign. How had he missed understanding that? And, how close were they - was the wormhole mere days away from Earth? His heart raced with enthusiasm as he forgot his earlier concrens for the moment. The goal was within reach - if the wormhole remained steady.

Boxey looked around after several moments, explaing they were about a day away from Earth, counting the wormhole, though it was moving farther away. "Where's Dad?" came the concerned voice.

Adama looked Boxey in the eyes. "He's very depressed and dismayed right now," explained the commander. "He thought for sure you had died, just like the rest of us thought." Adama nodded, forcing himself to admit it. "Yes, even I thought so...though I had hopes that you may have somehow reached Earth, perhaps with the help of that ship of lights,' I never dreamed you would come back."

Boxey lowered his head. "I hope he won't be mad at me."

"He'll be happier than he's ever been," declared the commander as he stood. As am I. "Earth," he muttered again dreamily, still not sure if he should be expecting Paradise, or what. What would he ask first?

"I got so much stuff," Boxey declared, pointing to the viper. "Pictures, seeds, a Bible, an almanac, even a stuffed dog. It's incredible." He pulled some photos from his pocket. "Look, I got a lot more than this in a bag in my viper."

Adama and Starbuck gazed at the snapshots of a brilliant blue sky, of small white clouds, of a small stretch of green grass, of tall cornstalks stretching as far as the eye could see, and of a gorgeous sunset that made the men weep with joy. Nothing like this had been seen in so long, and the sights were breathtaking even in a photo. It was so much more incredible than they had dreamed, even though Earth had problems. The boy couldn't even begin to explain the wonder of feeling wind, or the sun, or laying in real grass in a sleeping bag camping. Both men remembered their home world as they observed the photos. Neither thought they would ever see anything like it.

"Is...is that Heaven," gasped Starbuck, not quite grasping that Boxey had lived through that.

Boxey grinned excitedly. "No, it's Iowa! Not all Earth is this nice, and there might be some problems with people wondering if we belong there. I don't know how easily we can get there, but that shouldn't be a problem with God helping." He tried to think of how to explain all that he'd learned the previous day. "Come on, let's go see my dad."

As Adama jogged off to Apollo's quarters, Starbuck asked a favor of Boxey. He'd kept a journal of many of his experiences through the years. Somehow, he had a feeling his chronicles would be very important for future generations, detailing the many trials gone through in searching for Earth. "Boxey, will you do me a favor. Tell me everything you recall about that trip, so I can write it down. I think..." He laughed to himself. No, the idea was silly. Or, was it? After all, many very amazing things had happened the last few days. "I think years from now, there will be things about this that will belong in the same place as those great old scrolls that contain all of the Wisdom and Rules of the Ancients."

Apollo was still sulking. Adama walked up to the weeping man as he sat, alternating between staring at the boy's toys, his daggit, and at the scrolls. "Son..."

Apollo pounded the air with his fists, ignoring the happy tone. "Why didn't I have faith! Is this my punishment? What kind of a god takes away a wonderful boy like that just because I wouldn't go in there myself!" He got up and started prancing. "And where's my unspeakable joy? Where?!"

Starbuck, too, had been avoiding Apollo until now. He opened the door, but found his friend ready to throw the scrolls at him. Boxey stood behind him, frightened by his dad's demeanor. "And you, how did you ever let him get by you? Surely you could have done something!"

"Apollo, look..."

"Why are we looking for Earth anyway, maybe we should wait a few hundred yahren or something till they get things cleared up," Apollo ranted. "I know it doesn't have anything for me! I used to think it would be a great place, but I used to think my son and I would land in a shuttle and walk hand in hand off it!"

"But Apollo, we can go to Earth right now, and..."

The prancing fellow couldn't stand the smile on the lieutenant's face. "Don't you dare grin when this is happening to me! First my wife and brother, and my whole planet, and now my son is dead!"

Boxey couldn't recall the man being as anguished as he sounded. He still felt a little scared because of that, but figured Adama and Starbuck would protect him if his dad was too mad at him.

However, he had no need to fear that. As soon as he popped out from behind Starbuck and shouted "I'm right here, Dad," his dad gawked at him, speechless. They then ran toward each other, embracing even tighter than he and Starbuck had. Apollo's tears of agony became tears of joy, as he snuggled for several minutes with his son. He had, indeed, never been happier in his life. Boxey had been just about the only true connection he felt with his former world, as well as the only hope he held for the future. "I thought you were gone for good," he declared several times. Is this what the scrolls mean by "joy unspeakable?" Now I know what he must have gone through all those times when I was out there, not thinking of him like I should. Is this what I was supposed to learn, he asked himself. "Where were you?" he inquired after the embrace finally ended.

"He'd gone to Earth, it was almost a straight shot through that wormhole," explained Starbuck.

" Joy unspeakable,'" Apollo considered aloud. "To have my son back like this and to know Earth is so close - is that what the prophet meant?"

Boxey related his time on Earth, and his discoveries. The initial landing and other events, he explained, were breathtaking. Words could not begin to describe them for him, so he pulled out the pictures. "Wait, there's the best news of all," he remarked as Apollo gazed at the photos. "You know that verse in our prophecy about the Way, the Truth, and the Life? Well, there is one called Jesus who was God in the flesh as a person. He never sinned, but He died for our sins - the bad things we say, think, or do. All those bad things keep us from God's perfect Heaven, where there is no pain, no suffering, no tears, no sin, only joy and happiness and love. Jesus became sin for us, and took our punishment. And he was buried and rose again the third day, so we could get to Heaven."

Adama pulled out the last chapter of the prophecy of Yanius. "And just as the child was feared gone three days, so was this Jesus three days in the center of the Earth, His death an atonement for all of our sins."

"The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." Adama pointed to their own prophetic references as Boxey explained. "For God so loved the world - that's each and every one of us - that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. He is the only way to Heaven. We need to tell everyone right away. He's the one I was to find out about on Earth, and I did."

Apollo's head was swimming at this point. "Wait, you mean...well, how do I..."

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Adama nodded. The prophet had written thousands of years before that Boxey would say these exact words. The thought flabbergasted and awed the others. He continued to speak excitedly. "All you need to do is put your trust in Jesus as having paid the whole price for your sins, repenting and accepting Him as your Savior."

Commander Adama hmself broadcast the triumphant return of the Galactica's "legend," and along with Boxey told the whole fleet the Good News. Monica, Tess, Andrew, and Adam stood in the viper bay, ready to depart. "They still have a choice to make, don't they," Adam spoke.

Tess agreed. "It would be great if they could put their trust in God now, before the wormhole collapses. He might be leaving it open to keep them from having to travel twenty or thrity more years."

"Like Kadesh Barnea," suggested Andrew.

"Like Caleb's mountain, God will let Boxey have that farm in Iowa because he had faith," Tess told them. "But, while this miracle of sorts has helped a good number initially get saved through faith now, they need to make their own choices, and they ll have hurdles to consider. I think it'll be fairly easy for them to be accepted there, though - they are human, after all."

"And the food - there aren't that many of them, there'll be enough," spoke Adam.

Suddenly, Commander Adama approached them. "I wanted to see you off - Starbuck tells me you're really somethng special." He winked.

"I hope you make it, Commander, really soon," noted Moinca.

"We're not sure how well that wormhole will hold," explained Adama. "However, I think after what we've seen, our faith and trust in the Creator has grown by leaps and bounds. And, it makes it easy for us to choose - we are going through that wormhole toward Earth." The angels grinned happily. "It may seem hard, but we ll blend in with others well enough."

"God will always reward such great faith," remarked Monica.

Adama agreed. "It's not perfect, but no planet run by people can be. Even if that wormhole does break up too quickly and we take 20 more yahrens, we will reach Earth. After all, we've come this far by faith."

Sometime Later:

The shuttle landed just outside a small cornfield in Iowa. Adama, Apollo, and Boxey walked off of it arm in arm. Monica stood by, a scribe who would go back and report nothing had been seen - the United Nations felt it best not to escalate the Cold War by starting an arms battle, with each side trying to obtain the new, powerful weapons. Hence, money was given to as many as wanted to come to let them quietly settle down in various regions that were not too populous.

Yes, Adama thought as Apollo and Boxey eyed the spectacular scenery and embraced, we have a Battlestar lightly manned just in case, and we have other ships elsewhere. But we made it. We put our faith in something, and got a great new home in return. A wonderful world called Earth.


	2. Chapter 2

I wrote this 5-6 years ago, but only found it after years of thinking it was lost. It's a story resulting in a big space battle that I had as a story, but deleted because I couldn't figure out how to do chapters, since the two chapters were loaded as 2 different stories. Now, I decided to just put it on the tail end of my "Touched By An Angel" fic, since I'm not into the fandom and haven't cared about it for a long time; the TBAA thing was seven something from the late '70s/early '80s that just got expanded. I'm not into sci-fi anymore, but thought it deserved to be up here.

Chapter 2 of 2: Stormy Weather

Several years had passed – the United Nations had allowed those who wished to remain on Earth – which was almost everyone – to settle in as refugees, with government organizations simply allowing them to be listed as immigrants.

Boxey got his farm, as God had promised through Tess that he would. The people of Galactica had wasted little time in giving the go-ahead to go through the wormhole, and now, things were serene – it seemed.

Adama gazed at the rows of corn in front of him. He enjoyed livestock farming the most - as well as trying to breed dogs in his spare time - but his grandson, Boxey, had fallen in love with the crop after he'd flown through a wormhole and become the first of their people on Earth. Adama stopped his tractor, feeling a little tired as the late afternoon sun bore down upon him. Time to take a break, don't want any farming accidents now, thought the former commander.

He stepped out and gazed thoughtfully at his surroundings. The warmth of a real sun, the clear blue sky, and amber waves of grain provided such awesome sights to him. More so than could be believed. He began to hum "America the Beautiful" as he pondered the sight. Millions of Galacticans had been placed on Earth in mostly remote locations, generally as farmers, as that was something they could all do somewhat well. Of course, part of that was because of the first contact with Earthlings - fellow humans Harry Kirok and his family were farmers, and had been ideal people to provide the fleet of 220 ships with information on farming and how to do it. All while keeping their mouths shut. Boxey and the eldest Kirok child, Jimmy, had quickly become extremely close friends, and were now cousins to boot. They reminded him of his son, Apollo, and Starbuck.

Now, all the misery of space flight, all the worries about food, all the battles with the evil Cylons, who had destroyed their own home world and several others', were history. Or so he thought.

A Cylon craft whizzed past Earth's moon, taking pictures. The photos were immediately relayed to the gold Cylon's throne, as one might call it. He summoned Lucifer, an enemy of humans who wished to destroy them all. Lucifer stared at the reconnaissance photos and grinned an evil grin. "You did quite well in finding that wormhole just before it collapsed."

"We have been able to sneak three basestars through." Lucifer hummed. "Earth does not appear to have any advanced technology. Do we send a craft through right away?"

The Cylon rejected the notion. "We need to make sure the Galactica is nowhere to be found - you do not see it in Earth's orbit. How about the moon?" Lucifer had not seen it there. "Check the dark side of the moon. It could not have landed on Earth, so it must be somewhere. Just be sure to avoid any contact with Earth governments. We have heard nothing of their brethren reaching Earth, so they could have gone on to someplace else, and even if they didn't, the Earthlings do not know about us."

Lucifer bowed. Either way, they would hopefully be able to eliminate more humans. Many more, from what the population density appeared to be. "At your command."

Just before climbing into his tractor once more, Adama gazed upward. He squinted - no, it can t be, he told himself. And yet, it certainly looked like it.

In the air, a Cylon raider had flown too near a jet aircraft bound for Chicago. Not wishing to be seen, it had dipped precipitously. The drag created made it hard to pull back up, and the Cylon had underestimated the gravitational pull. Soon, it was crashing with a tremendous "splat!" The tinkling of metal must have been heard for miles, Adama thought to himself, not to mention if there was a sonic boom. He ran to the truck outside his barn listening to the intense oinking and squawking coming from the frightened creatures. "This is James T.," came the name which he used on his CB, "is there anyone from the US Air Force out there?" He chuckled, thinking of the very strange lingo. "Any of you with your ears on?'"

A colonel whom Adama recognized from his initial discussions with the U.S. government answered. "Yeah, James T., this is Cub Fan, what's up?"

Adama snickered again. This is the price we pay for secrecy, he considered. Oh, well, I know what the ravages of war are like. If we can keep governments from using our stuff to escalate an arms race and destroy each other, I'll call myself anything. "Just had a crash, you need to get some people out here. Made some bacon." He laughed aloud at that one.

"One of yours?"

"Worse," spoke Adama as the concept suddenly hit him square between the eyes. How are we going to defeat them? Can we? In a foreboding tone, he said "one of theirs."

Air Force planes soon were hovering over the crash site, and military vehicles were inspecting the wreckage. Adama returned to the farmhouse, dreading the thought of having to fly back to the Galactica. Just when he d begun to love life on Earth. Not to mention being a few fleet ships short if - Heaven forbid - they ever needed to take Earthlings up and flee with them. No, he told himself, that's ridiculous to even think that. Remember - we won that last battle on faith. He pondered the similarity between their final battle to get to Earth to the Biblical story of David and Goliath. He hoped a similar miracle could be pulled off this time.

Upon arriving home, he saw Boxey consoling Jimmy, who appeared ready to burst out in tears. "What's wrong," came the concerned voice.

"My dad's tractor flipped over," came the whiny voice. He sniffled. "He was trapped in it...they managed to get him out, but he's hurt real bad." Boxey embraced the lad.

"Oh, Jimmy." Adama went over and knelt beside the pre-teen. It reminded him so much of Boxey worrying about his dad flying around in space fighting the Cylons. And maybe that helped Boxey be able to comfort Jimmy here. But, still... "If there s anything we can do, please, let us know."

Boxey spoke up. "Dad's on the phone right now. He s getting some people together to bring in the harvest for the Kiroks; he said we could even go, we mostly do livestock so we don't have too much to worry about, and the farmhands could do it all for a few days if they had to."

Adama considered that Boxey sounded just like a real eleven yahren...make that eleven year old farm boy. Nobody would ever know the difference. Only a couple years ago, the U.N. was inoculating them all against Earth diseases, and getting information on how to quickly immunize nearly five billion people against any diseases they might have. Earth life still seemed like such an odd concept. And now, life in outer space seemed so remote, so foreign to the lad. Sure, there were things Adama, Apollo, Boxey, and the others didn't know or fully comprehend about Earth, but still, they had forgotten about that sort of thing. He felt embarrassed to have to bring it up again.

And yet, as the doorbell rang, Adama knew he must. For at the door stood Major Joseph Wood, of the U.S. Air Force. He greeted Adama, and was about to inquire into what happened when he noticed Boxey. He didn't want to interrupt the boy as he consoled his friend over whatever the problem was, so he turned to Adama. "He was here a couple years ago, in that what-you-call-it - viper - wasn't he?"

The commander nodded. He suddenly thought of himself as commander again, after having become just a regular farmer. "First one of ours to reach. He won a David and Goliath battle for us, then flew through a wormhole."

Wood smiled courteously toward Boxey, who finally noticed him. "It's okay," he said. "I know you might remember me from last time, when they tried to tell me that was some experimental aircraft covered up there. I might have asked you a bunch of questions about your world, but I just wanted you to know, if I'd learned you were from space I would have kept quiet knowing you were just a kid."

"Thanks," came the grinning boy.

"Anyway, back to what I was gonna say. We..." He saw Apollo walk in from the kitchen. "Captain Apollo; Major Joseph Wood, US Air Force."

Apollo was stunned. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had called him that. "Captain-"

"Apollo," came Adama's grim remark. "We have a very serious problem."

The pilot couldn't believe his ears when Adama and Wood spoke with him in the kitchen. And Sheba and I were going to celebrate our first sealing - oops, wedding - anniversary early next week. Athena's due any day. This is ridiculous, he mused. "Are you sure it was a Cylon ship?" "We've been around them too long to think otherwise," Adama commented.

Wood elaborated. "We picked something up on radar, but like usual, we didn't ask any questions, figured it was just one of your people. Especially since it was coming down right on your farm. Then we got the call from your dad," explained Wood, still shocked at the events of the last two years. This was starting to sound so much like a science fiction story. "As I speak, the man in charge of relaying messages is contacting the Galactica. There should be a shuttle coming from there, with vipers protecting them, around midday tomorrow. I understand she's still equipped with a skeleton crew?" It was. "Good, you may need her. I think Colonel Tigh is the Trimonthly Commander?'" He was. Tigh, Starbuck, Boomer, and former President Adar rotated as commander of the Galactica's forces. "Good; he'll be notified, and will bring the battlestar around. Hope you've used our foundries and equipment well. You might need a lot of vipers; we don't know how many Cylons are out there."

"More than enough, I'm sure," Adama spoke candidly.

"Wait, what about the harvest down here?" The voice was Apollo's.

"But you don't plant that much."

"I'm talking about Harry Kirok's." The man looked down and said "he's in really bad shape, but they'll go broke if they don't get all those crops in. It's the most important time of the year."

Had Wood been more of a joking man, he would have said something very hokey about all Earth counting on them. As it was, he merely iterated that "we make up an illness for you, say you're contagious, and that's the end of it. I understand," came the now less formal tone, "you want to help your neighbor. Of all your citizens, Commander Adama, your family has done perhaps the best job of any in blending in with your fellow human beings. I give part of the credit to Harry Kirok and his family. But you have done well yourselves."

"I think our like faiths have helped - I was always a great man of faith, I just put my trust in the Lord as so many here do," Adama told the major. He'd loved the idea of a risen Savior when he first of it. Indeed, his entire family had been quick converts to Chriatity, as it was the only religion that promised a reliationship.

"Of course, how else would you have even set out for Earth, except by faith," agreed Wood. "But you don't have to worry about not fitting in because you're not seen helping the Kiroks."

He grinned. The family knew the story - Athena had told Harry Kirok's brother, Bruce, the night he proposed. It had taken a while for Bruce to get used to it, but after all Athena had said, this "love at first sight" relationship had still blossomed into marriage, the first between one of the Galacticans and an Earthling, the previous November. And yet, it had been so like any other Earth marriage, right down to the normal pregnancy that Athena was about to carry to term. Yes, if any doubt existed before, it was certifiable now. These were definitely their brothers and sisters, from a time long ago, when - fromt he best that interpreters could figure - Tubal-Cain's descendants, frustrated with the world, had fled in ships befoer the Great Flood.

. The major concluded by remarking "you have done such a great job of fitting in, I never would have believed there was anything different."

Apollo fretted about what to tell Boxey. He called him and Boxey's new mom, Sheba into the kitchen. There's no easy way to say this, he thought to himself as he blurted out "we have some bad news. The Cylons are back."

Boxey shook his head. "They can't be."

"I know, we beat them fair and square last time - well, you did," the proud father remarked, grinning ear to ear.

"God won that battle."

The commander decided this was an appropriate time to mention their leaving. "Yes, Boxey, God has won many battles for us, and the Hand of God shall be here, too. That is one thing we always had, was faith. There'll be a shuttle coming to pick us up tomorrow morning or early afternoon."

"Can I come along," wondered the boy. He began to pout as his dad softly said "no."

Apollo hugged Boxey. "Your mother and I are both needed as viper pilots." He could tell Boxey might soon begin to cry like Jimmy was. "I know this is very hard for you. But there's someone here who needs you."

"What can be more important than helping you beat our enemies?"

Apollo recognized the irony - Boxey said that God was winning battles for them, but part of him still perceived that his dad was, in a large part, responsible for their being there. As time grew on, Apollo understood more and more that he wasn't the only one winning the fights. He'd had just as much faith as his dad and son. But, there was something about being a loving father that caused one's children to believe Dad could do anything. He wished he had that kind of power, wished he could keep things this way so his son wouldn't lose faith in him. And yet, as time grew on, his son would realize he wasn't perfect. That's the only problem with seeing your kids grow up, pondered the man. It humbles you so much.

He put his arm around his son. "Boxey, you have a friend out there in the living room who needs you desperately. He can confide in you like he's not comfortable confiding in an adult. You've feared the same things he fears now - not having a father, losing all you know. Remember how our Wisdom and the Bible both say 'all things work together for good to them that love God?' It might be that this is His way of saying 'I brought you through this to be a comfort to someone else, because you're the only one who can be.'"

Boxey smiled sadly. "Well, they think he's gonna live," he stammered, unsure of himself. Trying to sound less frightened than he was, he explained. "I never worried about you dying as much as I just wanted to be doing stuff with you."

Apollo smiled sweetly. "I know you'll pray for us. That's always been the most important thing. God wins great victories through prayer most of all. That saving faith you learned about when you landed, from Monica, and Tess, and Andrew, and the humans, and then brought to us? Remember, it wasn't just faith that Jesus was God in the flesh, He died for our sins and took our punishment, and rose from the dead so we could live forever with Him in Heaven. It's a living faith."

"Oh, yeah, so we got a relationship with him here on Earth."

"Right, we serve a risen, living Savior. That means you can talk to Him whenver you want; not as a vending machine, but as a loving Father who will give what we ask when we go to Him asking in His will." Boxey smiled; having such a great father as Apollo, he was even more pleased than most to think of God as a Heavenly one. "And now, you've got something to do. Be there for your friend. And," he pointed out, "help bring in that harvest. You'll be helping to save that, you know."

Boxey gave a melancholy "ok" and hugged his dad and mom.

Commander Adama felt a tinge of sadness as the shuttle lifted off into space. It wasn't like he was leaving Earth for good, but still, there was so much joy down there. In a way, he'd forgotten how much joy there could be in having a planet to call his own. Oh, he knew Earth would be fabulous, but there were hints it would be a Paradise when they found it. However, their teachings had come from a time when Earth was a pristine wonderland, with only a few million people. Descendants of one Tubal-Cain had been the fathers of the twelve tribes, and in a way, descendants of all mankind, as one of Tubal-Cain's great-granddaughter had married Noah.

Now, they departed again, this time to rendezvous with the Galactica. Starbuck had joined them, as had several others. Athena would have, but even though the Kiroks were around, Apollo liked the idea of having his sister there to help raise Boxey, if something should happen to him. Besides, they still didn't know how the baby would handle space flight, even with their protective shielding keeping them from feeling as many g forces as normal.

Apollo and Starbuck looked out the porthole together, scanning the blackness of space. The dad considered how much like them Boxey and Jimmy had become. "I bet those boys will be forgetting their sadness by imagining great adventures up here," he told his friend.

"Could be. From what I've seen kids that age have a great imagination." Starbuck began to ponder his life on Earth. He and Cassiopeia - Cassie to her Earth friends - had wed several months ago. Now, they would be flying in the same squadron. He hoped he wouldn't have to face losing her. Of course, his fear of loss had eased quite a bit since landing on Earth; indeed, since finding Boxey's viper as he returned from Earth through that wormhole. He'd learned that things could get better. He'd built up some trust.

And now? Now that he was departing Earth, he felt more confident than he'd ever felt that he'd return. Not because of his own flying skills, though he still had those. But because of simple faith.

Sheba chided Starbuck. "Any truth to the rumor Cassie's going to be your second in command when you're Trimonthly Commander next time?"

Starbuck laughed. "Not that I mind her getting out of the dangers of flight," remarked the pilot as he held up a hand, "but we don't have anything to do but look at space junk when we fly around up here anymore."

"Which is probably why we missed those Cylons," considered Apollo seriously. "That is supposed to be part of our job, but we just got complacent."

"Hey, why should we expect them, we have enough trouble figuring out how to get around all that space debris orbiting the Earth when we go up and down," came the sarcastic remark from Starbuck.

Adama held up a hand. "All right, you two, let's keep our focus on the mission. They're obviously hiding their bases somewhere. My thought would be one of the outer planets - or maybe in the asteroid belt." He considered the wormhole they'd gone through to get to Earth. Presumably, they'd gone through the same one. The prudent thing to do was to sit and wait for a little while - the Galactica had hidden herself well on the other side of the sun from Earth. If they hadn't seen any Cylons, they also hadn't been seen. Therefore, they would also stun the Cylons by appearing - while at the same time making sure they saw the "whites of their eyes" first. Or, more accurately, the red dots moving back and forth.

The shuttle arrived in the docking bay, as Galactica and numerous fleet ships closed to within several million miles of Earth. An overweight man in his forties stretched out his hand almost as soon as they departed and introduced himself. "I am Gunther, I understand you only go by one name on this ship, so just call me that. You must be the great Commander Adama, and Apollo, and Starbuck, and..." He thought for a moment. His accent held a little German, it appeared. "Well, you are the only famous ones."

"Who are you," inquired Adama with more than a hint of annoyance. All wondered just what this man was doing here.

"What, Colonel Tigh didn't tell you? I'm from Switzerland, and I've assisted for the last few months at the request of the U.N." He scanned inside the shuttlecraft. "Fancy stuff! But don't worry - we Swiss are always neutral, and so I won't tell any country of my observations. I know nothing, I see nothing, and I hear noth-ing!" He grinned. "Okay, let's see how much Earth trivia you know - what show is that from?"

All but Apollo and Sheba were stumped. "Hogan's Heroes," the mother blurted, "Boxey enjoys watching that show on reruns."

"Ah, yes," Gunther exclaimed, eager to have some more fun with the new arrivals. "And how is the little shepherd boy, the Galactica's David, as it were; he did not come?"

"No, he's tending the flock back home," Adama informed him bluntly, considering that he'd made perhaps a wittier remark than Starbuck would have. "Now, what is this about?"

Gunther excused himself in a quite jovial manner. "Ah, a thousand pardons. You see, the U.N. is in charge of the transfer, as you know. Well, they had asked me to make sure everyone got settled nice and cozy on Earth, but then they realized it was probably good to have someone oversee and make sure nothing got sold to individual nations; you know, sort of a Prime Directive from the planet's end, since you don't have a United..."

"...Federation of Planets," Starbuck finished with him. He turned to Adama and explained. "Colonel Tigh told me since I'll be Trimonthly next, I remember him from my last tour up here. He's legit, I can vouch for that." Adama felt relived that Colonel Tigh was checking up for Starbuck and able to watch Gunther over the last couple months, just in case. "And it's a good analogy; we've tried hard not to interfere or change things too much. I think the closest we could come is our best Triad player who played so well at Iowa this year - he's a lot better defensively than Durham, the Cubs could win a pennant in 84," finished the man.

Gunther laughed the loudest they'd heard him. "The Cubs are pathetic, they won't win in 84 or any year, no matter what you do." He clapped his hands and reported "we have a few more vipers ready, and guess who knows how to fly one. Those are so awesome!" The Swiss man felt genuine excitement at being able to participate in such an endeavor. His excitement level was catching, in a way, but it could also get on one's nerves in a hurry. Especially if he didn't stop with the television references, thought Adama to himself.

"So you've used the flight simulator," Apollo asked as Adama wearily beckoned them to the bridge.

"Yes, and we've found at least two basestars, now that we've swung around." Sheba gulped slightly. "They are in the asteroid belt."

Adama announced a meeting of senior staff once Boomer arrived. "Gunther..." He sighed. He'd have to see if he truly could fly, but he knew they could use all the help they could get. "I guess you know what you're doing, I guess you can come along. I will want to keep an eye on you, just in case."

"Fine, and don't worry, I know you know the stakes." All others moaned as Gunther's face developed an ornery look and spoke in a corny whisper. "The future of Earth is in YOUR hands!" He laughed at his jesting while the others simply shook their heads.

Adama convened the meeting at a large table in a conference room near the bridge. "Colonel Tigh..." He didn't know what to say, so he simply gestured toward the Swiss man. Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer, and Sheba were also there.

Tigh looked a little embarrassed. "Well, Sir, I thought he might help, but didn't think he would be this jovial, this...well, just silly."

"Hey, you have to enjoy life; stop and smell the mushies," remarked Gunther.

Adama glared at him. "There is enough time for that once we are finished - but as you said, this is a very serious problem. I would expect Boxey to make jokes like you."

"Even he's mature enough not to make so many now," noted Apollo.

Tigh decided to continue over the discussion. Yes, Gunther wasn't thinking clearly about the severity of the mission, but Tigh did enjoy the humor to some degree. Anything to beat the boredom one experienced most days as Trimonthly. "Anyway, as I was saying Commander, you had given orders not to be disturbed except in times of peril like this, and I felt it best to honor those orders."

"I understand, and at other times, I would likely not be so concerned." It did feel good to have a fresh face on board. And, Gunther's wit was good, when he wasn't referring to TV shows that the commander had barely heard of, or saying things that sounded like they came from hokey sci-fi flicks from the 1950s, such as his comments about the "future of Earth." "It's just that we have come across what we feared we would, and Earth has no extra defenses to aid us."

Apollo inquired into the disposition of fleet ships. Boomer explained. "We have several on the dark side of the moon, just waiting there, in..." He chuckled, looking toward Gunther. "...in cold storage." All giggled a little, though Gunther laughed out loud. "About 150 are in different parts of Earth's system, manned by skeleton crews who are still transferring them over to computer control - someday we'll be able to control them all from Galactica." He smiled. This had been Boomer's pet project in his first tour as Trimonthly Commander, and he'd stepped up the process during his second tour. "Should be totally feasible in a about three more years, or yahren, whichever we use up here."

"Years will do, Lieutenant. I believe we're all rather comfortable now with Earth measurements," considered the commander aloud. "Though I do find myself reverting once in a while. Sort of like an immigrant to America who once in a while slips into the ways of the old country." Yes, thought Adama, we're all just immigrants to Earth now. And yet, how much of that "old country" was there? The battles with Cylons were far worse than the hardships faced by those coming from strife-torn regions of the globe to America. His studies of those immigrants had led him to explore Ellis Island and the history surrounding it, and had led many who had settled in richer nations to simply make up stories about "the old country." But those were based on tales of World War One, and of the Holocaust.

He sighed. Yes, Earth had had its own Holocaust. Part of him still pined for that legendary planet of their youth. But like an immigrant who learned that America wasn't a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, he'd learned to make do, and still valued it greatly over what he'd had before. Now, though, he faced a different dilemma. Now, they would have to face what Earth lacked, and make up for it. He was thankful that, like those immigrants, he had a faith to build on, when there was nothing else.

The others had spoken for several minutes, respecting the commander's pensiveness. Now, however, a decision had to be made. "Commander," came Tigh's slightly concerned voice.

Adama looked startled for a second, being jarred back to the moment at hand. It was so easy, and so fun, to get lost in his daydreams at times like this. Daydreams that had always included a wonderful, peaceful Earth. "Huh? Oh, sorry, Colonel Tigh, just daydreaming. What was it?"

"About the cannon, we have enough charges for about 15 bursts, but like you've said, it needs to be used prudently." Adama nodded. "It uses a lot of energy. Should we get the people ready to use it quickly here, or wait?"

Adama shook his head. "We need to see what we're up against first. But, perhaps you can put crews on standby. How accustomed are you all to vipers?" Apollo was rusty, but the others were rather good. "I want you all out flying this afternoon. Gunther, once I see you can fly, if you're that good, I'm putting you in Captain Apollo's squadron. He's one of the best - him and Starbuck. You'll learn a lot from them." Adama gave a few more instructions, then realized he was right back into his most familiar role. As they left the conference, he patted Apollo on the shoulder. "What is it the Earthlings say - just like riding a bicycle."

Apollo grinned. "Yeah, it's going to be good, but I still wish I was out exploring." And I will after Boxey's all grown. He sighed, staring off into space.

"Is something the matter," inquired Adama. Trying to guess what bothered his son, he thought back to one of the last times he flew a viper. "You know, it wasn't your fault Boxey launched and went into that battle. And, he came back, after all."

Apollo grinned. "Thanks, Dad. Actually, that doesn't bother me much now, since he's safe on Earth." He struggled to find words for what he wanted to say. "It's just that..." He shook his head. "We haven't done too well protecting planets." His mind flashed back to Serina, and Zac, and all the others he'd known who were lost. Don't let Boxey or anyone else on Earth suffer like that, he prayed silently. "Sometimes I think back to our own world, and..." He trailed off, deep in thought.

The two walked in silence down to the viper hangar. "Apollo, that's in the past." The commander faced him. "I don't know how this battle will turn out, though I wish I could make some promises. I do know, however, that you are still, despite your time off, one of the best pilots in our history or Earth's. And while you yourself can't save a planet, you can make a big difference."

"What if they start firing on Earth..."

"We have fleet ship to intercept such shots," noted the commander. "Plus, they'll be mad at us, they should go for us first."

"But what if they don't..."

"Apollo," came the calming voice of the commander as he put a hand on his shoulder. "I have concerns about that, too. And the people at the U.N. are sweating bullets, I'm sure." He grinned. "But this won't be the massive strike that occurred against our own world. There will be no Baltar, we know he was destroyed witht he ships int hat last battle. And," he added, "we have something else. A little surprise we picked up." Apollo raised an eyebrow as the commander spoke of some "secret weapon."

Chapter Two

"Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky. Stormy weather," came Gunther's very bad singing as he, Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer surveyed the area. They hadn't run into any Cylon craft yet, but they knew raiders likely stood nearby.

Starbuck interjected. "On the other hand, though we're on the side now facing away from the Earth's sun, you could argue that there are billions of suns out here."

"Touche," came Gunther's response. "But we better look out, soon it could rain photon torpedoes."

"All right, what's going on," wondered Apollo.

"With what," Starbuck wanted to know.

"Starbuck, Dad's right, Boxey doesn't even joke this much when it's something serious; you heard me telling about how understanding he was with Jimmy. And even you, you like to be sarcastic at times, but..." He trailed off. "I think I spotted something." He went forward to investigate, and soon the group was firing on a dozen Cylon raiders sent on a reconnaissance mission, searching for the downed craft. To their surprise, Gunther handled his viper rather well. Not flawless by any means, but he was as good as any recruit.

Apollo reported the problem. "I imagine they're after the downed one," Adama noted.

"Dad, should we give it back? I not only worry about you being a hostage, but the Earth!"

Adama nodded sadly. Flying over a world now seen as their own, he knew their desire to defend it would be extreme. "Well, we're still examining the Cylon and its craft. There should still be a little time - remember, they haven't come looking till now."

"Why not," Starbuck wondered aloud.

Apollo had an idea. "Maybe they wanted to gauge Earth's response."

"And as far as they can tell, Earth didn't do anything," commented Boomer. "So they know they don't have much defense. Either that or they think the Cylons are friendly, and either way it's bad news." He sighed. "I'm beginning to worry just like you, Apollo."

Adama refused to accept that line of reasoning. "Let's not forget, they did do something - from what the Cylons probably gather. They called on us. So now, the Cylons know they can't attack Earth without going through us."

"But then why only..." Apollo began to think. Yes, it was too easy, but that's how it had appeared one other time. And, the Cylons had tricked them into letting down their guard. He wouldn't be fooled again. "Everyone, be on the lookout for raiders, I don't want any slipups. Commander, call out any available off duty viper pilots you can, we need to make sure they don't try another sneak attack."

Adama ordered Tigh to follow Apollo's suggestion. "Good call, I was thinking the same thing. I'm also ordering us to alert status, and requesting that several fleet ships be put between us and them, and also for fleet ships to spread around the Earth, just in case. Our fleet ships don't have weapons, but the Cylons don't know that."

As the group searched for Cylon basestars, Starbuck spoke. "You were asking about Gunther. Well, you might say he's a lot like me," he explained.

Gunther elaborated. "You know Earth's own Holocaust? Well, I was made an orphan by the Nazis in Germany when they took my parents - would have taken me, too, but I was hiding, and the Gestapo weren't yet looking too hard for little kids; it was only 1939. I was only 3 at the time, though. We were in Southern Germany, so I was sent via this Underground group to Switzerland, and stayed in an orphanage for six years." He sighed, not wishing to tell about how - with the millions of Jews having been killed, and the casualties of war- he'd been one of the forgotten ones, orphaned too early. Instead, he simply remarked "I learned early how to make people laugh, and that if I pretended to be happy, at least then everyone would laugh with me."

"Were you ever adopted," Apollo wanted to know.

The question was too painful for him to elaborate - or even to answer for the moment. "Well, I got out of there at fifteen and tried to join the forces that protect the Pope. I was too young, and so I found a role for me in some gangs, doing just petty things. My knack for comedy told me I wasn't making people happy, wasn't makin' em smile with that, so I turned to working for some of the UN's charities - Switzerland's so neutral they're not even a member of the General Assembly, but they do participate in lots of the charity work. WHO, UNESCO, you name it. It was with the World Health Organization that I got connected to the Galactica, settling people in and all that. Then, I got a chance to work up here, and I took it - just to show off my humor as much as anything, you might say, but I just love the idea of space flight."

Apollo had begun to understand a little better - knowing how Starbuck had suffered similarly helped. He still recalled the day Starbuck put his own life on the line to save kids in an orphanage from Cylon attack. And, he couldn't fathom being left an orphan like Starbuck was - or like Gunther was. Indeed, the idea shocked him enough that he never really allowed himself to think about it. Maybe that's why I never gave it much thought about leaving Boxey, I never let myself think what it would be like for him, he contemplated. And even now, after having thought Boxey lost in the battle to get us to Earth, it didn't keep me from going up again.

The captain heard Sheba inquire about Swiss neutrality. "That's just for against other countries," Gunther assured her. "As for this, this is international. I'm sure we'd be able to beat em ourselves if we had to." No, Gunther, he wanted to shout, wincing, you just don't understand. These are killers, they murdered a whole planet. They make Hitler look like a great humanitarian. They can't be reasoned with, and their weaponry are far superior to anything on Earth.

Still, though, human pride would want to fight, wouldn't it? We ran for quite a while. And we won when we finally did fight. But it was against great odds, and a miraculous victory. Could he count on that again? He wasn't sure.

Pastor Peter Henneman welcomed the congregation to their Sunday night prayer meeting. "Does anyone have any prayer requests?" As expected, Jimmy's hand shot up. "Yes, Jimmy," he said to one of the few children there - most were in the church's small childrens' program. "How was your father this afternoon? Sorry I couldn't make it there, I shall be there to see hm tomorrow."

"He's getting better, but he has to have another operation tomorrow on his left lung." He added "there is one praise besides him coming out of the other surgery safe - we have over three dozen coming to help with our harvest this week."

The pastor nodded and gave thanks. "I know many of you are assisting in this in some way, if not bringing it in by taking food or watching the children at various times. This is the kind of thing that truly draws God's people together, united in Christ's mercy, forgiveness, and unconditional love. Boxey," he inquired to the uplifted hand, "do you have a request?"

Boxey didn't know what to say. He wished he could just spit it all out right now - but what would he tell them? So much of it was so hard - the intense worry, the pain of losing his mother, and so on. His dad had been right that Jimmy needed him during this time, but he needed Jimmy just as much. He continued to fear, even with all his faith and prayers, that something could happen, and that the Kiroks may have to adopt him after all. How did one put all those things into a few short words? How did one ever understand? He still doubted he would ever totally comprehend why his dad left like he did.

Recalling a term used by someone who wanted theirs kept private and didn't want people tiring a sick spouse out with visits, Boxey simply said "an unspoken request." And it's a biggie, he thought to himself. Several more added their own requests, and several deacons led the group in prayer before the short sermon.

After the service, Jimmy and Boxey went home with Mabel, Jimmy's mom, and his siblings. "It's rough, isn't it," spoke Jimmy solemnly.

Boxey remembered his planet. He chuckled slightly, as he recalled being so upset that they couldn't find his dog, Muffy, leading to the building of a robotic one for on board the Galactica. He hadn't cared about much else at that time, and that occupied his young mind so much that the pain adults must have felt was lessened. Of course, there was the pain of losing his mother, then. Still, as he pondered the smaller children, he opined "it may be easier for them, the things they worry about are so much less important. They can't quite fathom something as big as losing a father."

"You're right, they don't think about it as much," noted Jimmy. "It's easier to distract them."

"As I got older, I'd miss my dad more, wish even more that he'd just stay at home. I think about both our dads, and what they're going through." He shook his head. "Where would we be without faith?" Like the faith that led us to Earth, he mused.

Jimmy put an arm on Boxey's shoulder. "I know the feeling." He heaved a hearty sigh. "The worst part is not knowing, isn't it." Boxey nodded. "It's hard to think of our planet as a legend. If you knew it was out here, even with so little information..." He trailed off, trying to imagine what Boxey's people must have gone through. Anything to take his mind off his dad.

Boxey stood and gazed into space as the family emerged from the car. Jimmy followed, the blackening canopy filling with little points of light incomprehensible distances away. "It's so unfair. We found Earth like a needle in a million haystacks," Boxey ruminated, "and yet we can't know what's going to happen to our dads tomorrow." They silently stared upward for several minutes before going into Jimmy's room to prepare for bed and pray.

Meanwhile, during a couple days of training, the Galactica's fighters shot down another couple dozen Cylons. Then, the major attack began. Or, rather, the first of several. One basestar, with over a hundred Cylon fighters streaming from it, began moving toward Galactica from just outside Mars' orbit. Another approached from a slightly different direction, from behind Mars. Adama considered his options. He could move the Galactica in position to be destroyed by both, let them power up their weapons, and then quickly move it out, letting them destroy each other. However, that appeared very unwise. It was taking a gigantic chance when one more basestar remained, and it didn't even take into account that the Galactica might not even move out in time.

The power supply had been checked - they had enough power for a dozen shots with the mighty "pulsar cannon," as Gunther like to call it. However, they drained so much energy, that even with a skeleton crew preventing them from using lots of life support, they didn't have much time to get the weapon ready, nor much strength to re-power it. However, one shot would likely be needed early.

As the klaxon sounded to tell Apollo and his crew to report to the viper bay, Adama put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, son, I remember all too well what happened before." The shudder he'd done a moment before as he recollected the destruction wrought by the Cylons vanished. His face became resolute, much firmer than Apollo recalled it being. "I won't let them lay one hand on Earth."

Nearly eighty vipers faced down the assaults from two hundred Cylon raiders. "Don't let them get near, guys, I know what they're trying to do," declared Apollo, "they want to set the Galactica on fire."

"Filthy pyromaniacs," spat Gunther.

Apollo swerved around to get through to the basestar. He fired a couple potshots at the large landing strip of the Cylon craft before Gunther warned him to look behind him. Two Cylons were on his tail. The captain rapidly veered toward his right, as Gunther shot one of the fighters, knocking out its guidance system. The other began to follow Gunther, until Starbuck rushed his viper in and knocked both out.

"Not bad shootin'," Starbuck told Gunther. Another Cylon was on Starbuck's tail, but Starbuck simply led it to the landing bay, then quickly swerved upward, causing the Cylon to crash and explode before it had time to turn. "Hey, that gives me an idea," said Starbuck. "Bridge, you there?"

"Right here, what is it, Starbuck," Tigh inquired.

"Hey, order an evacuation of a couple of the fleet ships, I wanna try something."

Adama raised his eyebrows. "Starbuck, what are you saying?"

"Look, I think I can ram one of them into a basestar, but I think I'll need a little help gettin' away," noted the pilot.

Apollo, never one to miss a chance to do something daring, instantly agreed to help. "I think I know what he means, but we oughta set it on fire ourselves first. Any idea how we can do that?"

Adama shook his head. This was getting ridiculous. And yet, desperate times called for desperate measures. "We're powering up our cannon to hit that basestar coming from the other direction, they won't suspect that. We just need a few minutes to get ourselves in position. Then I'll think about it." Where is that other basestar, he asked himself. Though we do have that secret weapon idea, I'd kind of like to save it for the end.

Apollo spoke as he shot at another couple of Cylons. "I hear you. Boomer, lead a detachment to the other side of the earth, see if it's trying to sneak around us. Have them scan up and down, too, in case they're working on a different plane."

"Hey, can I join them," Gunther wondered. "I'm getting sick of these guys not behaving like the ones in Space Invaders. You know, nice little rows."

"Oh, go ahead," ordered Apollo, glad to be rid of the satirical remarks for a little while. Maybe Starbuck likes them, but while I'm flying I'd like to keep my mind on the mission. If I start to let my mind wander with mirth, then I let it wander to other things. Like worrying about Boxey. And that could affect my performance greatly. He reminded himself to focus as he and Starbuck pondered how to use that fleet ship.

Lt. Boomer led one group around Earth's northern pole to investigate, while Sheba took another half dozen vipers to Earth southern pole. "Gunther, this is Sheba," came the warning, "don't go out too far."

"Aw, come on, what's another half million miles gonna do-" He stopped suddenly and started shooting at random as a couple Cylon raiders flew near him. Luckily, Sheba and the others destroyed them quickly. "Well, I guess we know where the basestar is."

"You picked a heck of a way to find out." Sheba called in their positions as they returned to their starting point. "We think we've spotted the basestar on the underside of Earth."

"Commander," Tigh spoke on the bridge, "that part's not well protected. And with all the problems we're having I don't know if we can get down there."

"Gun powered at 75." Lights were staring to dim.

Adama had a quick decision to make. "Sheba, how did you find out about that - how close are they?"

"Gun at 80."

"We're turned now in the direction of the one we want," came another voice from the bridge crew.

"Gunther wandered out too far, and almost ran into the Cylons - well, he did, but we didn't let them get him."

"Ninety percent." Most of the energy was drained into the weapon. If only the vipers could hold on a little longer...

Boomer flew down just in time to see a Cylon raider nearing the viper bay. With one swift shot he destroyed it. No time for official niceties, he told himself as he called on others to converge on that area. Yes, it would call attention to what the Galactica was trying to do, but hopefully it would be too late. A dozen vipers met another dozen Cylon raiders. A swift battle ensued. The raiders were destroyed, but not before a couple shots hit the Galactica, starting a series of fires.

The bridge rocked as the technician said "95."

Adama hollered "when it gets to full power, don't wait for my mark, just fire!" He turned to another. "How bad have we been hit?"

"Fires in three different spots, we need that power to fight them."

"Send firefighters, tell them hold them off as long as they can." Adama fretted about being discovered by the third basestar. Not they it didn't know where they were before, but there was a chance. And the way ti was done - that Gunther had blown it big time. It was almost as bad as Baltar's treason so long ago...

Wait a minute, he thought to himself, stopping suddenly. "Baltar..." snuck from his lips just before a gigantic burst of energy from the battlestar. The burst sent everyone flinging around like a doll being thrown around by a child. The fires grew more intense as Adama struggled to get up, beset suddenly by a headache. He heard that the target was now a heap of debris. We put an awful lot into that shot. I hope we survive it ourselves, he considered.

"Yeah, thank goodness Baltar got killed last time," spoke Tigh as he demanded status reports.

"I mean, we use Gunther as another Baltar - buy us some time." He pressed the comm panel with such force he feared he had broken it. "Apollo?" After being acknowledged, Adama ordered him to send Gunther to his quarters right away.

Gunther approached cautiously as he entered the commander's quarters. He wasn't sure what this was about, but knew that the Galactica still needed as many viper pilots as they could get, even with the destruction of one of the basestars. The entire ship was nearly dark, the light from fires lighting things as much as anything. The Swiss national acknowledged several people as he went past them, but remained focused on what he might find waiting for him in Adama's quarters. He was shocked to find the man quite grim. However, before he could say anything, the commander spoke.

"Gunther, are you familiar with our history?"

"Well, sure," spoke the man, "I've been here enough and talked with enough colonists to know..."

Adama interrupted him. "Are you familiar with a man named Baltar?"

Gunther paused a moment. He held up his hands and said "aw, now wait a minute, if you're inferring that just because I went ahead of the other vipers..."

Adama rose, his head throbbing. "Gunther, I am not inferring anything. I know that you know the stakes - if we don't stall for a little time we're finished. And so is Earth." He pulled out a line from the Bible, one he wished he'd known and been able to use on Baltar. Not that he would have listened, he told himself grimly. "And what does it profit a man to gain the world, but lose his immortal soul?"

"Right, exactly," Gunther exclaimed, "I wouldn't sell Earth out for anything."

"Just making sure. Because I want you to pretend to be just such a traitor as Baltar was." Gunther stared at Adama in shock. "Your comic shtick is good; but how can you do drama?"

"I...I don't know what to say...You want me..."

"It will buy us some valuable time to repair our damage. In that time, you can deliver that bomb you brought - by the way, how did you happen across one of those?" The commander was quite curious.

"Let's just say a friend owed me a favor, and I thought you might like to see one," Gunther explained.

Adama sighed. Such crude, destructive weapons hadn't been seen since early in the Thousand Yahren War. The planet's population had been whittled down quite a bit by that, as the bombs became progressively worse. Then, the Cylons came. So much had been destroyed by madmen, it would be so nice to settle down to peace and tranquility.

However, they'd learned Earth was anything but tranquil at some moments of their lives. They'd had their own madmen, some of whom, if given time, might have started such a disastrous war. Earth's own Second World War had been bad enough. It had ended with a nuclear weapon. He hoped they would end this, too. As much as he hated the reminder of his own world's troubled past, he knew it had to be done.

"I know those weapons from even our own history - they would kill so many within an instant, melt machinery, and so on."

"I'd have to get in there awfully close, if you want me to..."

"I want you in there. And the only way you can get around their defenses to do it is if you are going in there to give them the keys to Earth." He put a hand on Gunther's shoulder, resisting the urge to repeat the Swissman's line about the future of Earth. "Think of it as getting back at the Gestapo."

A broad grin swept across Gunther's face. "We all have our own private storms to go through, don't we. You fight like in Star Wars, and I'm going to be playing in a very strange Hogan's Heroes. Maybe I'll even take the name Papa Bear."

"Don't, if that's an Allied code name you'll give yourself away." Adama conceded that he was right about the storms. "Everyone has storms. If there's one thing this has shown me, it's that war and other problems are human nature; we couldn't stop it by running away and colonizing other worlds. However, Gunther, you and I are brothers. And one thing that makes me respect you most is that you're willing to take on such a dangerous mission as this."

"What makes you know I'll accept?"

"Because I know Lieutenant Starbuck. And he faced terrible adversity, got in with the wrong crowd, and was going the totally wrong direction, when he started as a fighter pilot. And when nobody else saw good in him, I did. And I'd say I was a pretty good judge of talent." He patted Gunther on the arm. "I don't know your history, except Starbuck told me you were a child scarred by the Nazis. But I've sensed a kinship between the two of you. And I think that extends farther than maybe even you realize."

Gunther thought for a moment. "You can count on me, Sir." He saluted and asked for instructions.

Gunther considered what Starbuck had once told him about his rescuing of youths from an orphanage at great risk to his own life. Yes, he told himself, maybe Adama's right. We are a lot closer than I think. He attempted to send out a signal from the weakened broadcast section of the Galactica. Suddenly, the picture of a Cylon flashed on the screen. Excusing the darkness, he said "my name is Gunther. I am a citizen of Earth."

"Earth will be destroyed," came the robotic voice.

"Yes, but not without great loss to you." He strongly resisted the urge to tell a joke. "Look, the Galactica has a new type of missile that could melt a polar ice cap in no time."

"We do not care."

"I would like to give it to you - for a price." The connection was shut off momentarily, only to be replaced a second later by an evil looking fellow named Lucifer. He'd longed to have another Baltar - it pleased him that Earth, too, had people willing to turn traitor.

"I have been instructed by the Centurion to ask you what you can give us."

"I can hand over the Galactica - the commander trusts me completely. As well as a missile that will melt the polar ice caps." He grossly exaggerated the power of a nuclear warhead. "And, of course, this would save you from many senseless Cylon deaths."

Lucifer reported this to the gold Cylon, who quickly considered his options. The attack would need to be halted for a short while. He didn't know if he could trust this man. However, he knew that without him, there was a slim chance - albeit very slim - that they could lose. They had no more backups for many thousands of light years; such would not come for many, many decades. They wanted to destroy all humanity on the face of the Earth, as well as the Galactica. And to do that, they would need to be sure of some help. So, after a while, it was ordered that the Cylons should ask Gunther to name his price.

Gunther smiled, hoping it looked evil enough. "Just halt all attacks until I get there tomorrow afternoon, United States time. And I shall turn over the keys to the planet."

Chapter Three

Adama met with the other chief leaders - Tigh, Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer - in the conference room later that night. It still felt odd to him to see no change from day to night - everything had been the same for so long. No wonder we were so awestruck when we first set foot on Earth, he told himself. Indeed, perhaps I still am a little.

President Adar, being one of the Trimonthly Commanders, and Gunther had also shown up for this briefing. Having just explained to them the reason for the lull in fighting, Adama asked if there were any questions. "Seems a little risky, don't you think," spoke Adar.

"Yes, I will admit it is an unusual move, but it has bought us some time." He filled the others in on the nuclear weapon. "It should kill most of those on the basestar, allowing us to destroy it later."

"No offense, Gunther, but..."

"None taken, Captain," came Gunther's quick response.

Apollo was dumbstruck. "You don't even know what I was going to say!"

The Swissman's tone became vaguely somber as he related "when you've had your parents taken out and shot by Gestapo right before your eyes like I have, you better learn awfully fast not to be offended by little things."

"You may have lost a family," muttered Adama coolly, "but you've never lost a planet."

Apollo gave a "thanks, dad" look to the commander while completing his thought. "We've had some pretty tough fights, like my dad says. I just worry, what with our memories of Baltar, that this might be a trick. I mean, how can we know..."

"It was I who came up with the notion," noted the commander.

"But only after he went out too far and alerted the Cylons to our presence," Apollo retorted.

"I have considered that, my son. Which is why I intend to go along for the ride." Jaws dropped around the room. Even Gunther appeared a little surprised. "As a hostage."

"Dad, you can't..."

"Apollo," Adama commenced, then turning to face the entire group from his seat at the head of the table, "I have made a career out of protecting our people. I said I would not allow them to lay one hand on Earth, and I mean it. It is our home. It has been our goal from the beginning." He folded his hands. "Some may think of this as a move not befitting my normal pragmatism. However, I learned a lesson about faith soon before we reached Earth. There is no practical' reason for it. It is something which one has - and needs - to sustain themselves. Without that faith in Earth, would we have been able to accomplish what we did? I don't know. Sometimes, I really doubt it."

"So you're going on an adventure, huh," spoke Gunther with a hint of awe. "Not content to let your underlings do the fighting - you want to be the big hero, huh?"

The commander turned to Gunther. "Call it what you will - I can only say that I will assist you. I feel I owe it to the people of Earth for bringing the Cylons here." He sighed. "And, more importantly, to my people and myself, to make sure these wicked Cylons are defeated." He dismissed Gunther to have him make another contact with the Cylons before going to bed.

Once Gunther left, Adama pulled out from under the table a small, black box with several buttons on it - three green and one red - all in a row. It looked very unimpressive, until he hooked it up to a viewscreen heretofore unused in the center of the table. As all gathered around, they noticed Gunther's room. "What's that for," inquired Apollo, "making sure he's doing what you tell him to?"

Adama sighed. "There is a connection in Gunther's uniform as well. It shall be monitored by you from the bridge tomorrow, Colonel Tigh."

"What are the buttons for," inquired the genuinely curious colonel.

Adama sighed. "I had our technicians connect this remote control device to the viper and to the atomic bomb, in case we should need to guide it manually. Colonel Tigh, if we are in any danger of being betrayed - and I mean any danger - you are to press the three green buttons in order three times, left to right as it faces you now." He paused a second. "That is the self-destruct sequence. Then, you are to press the red one. It will cause the viper and bomb to self destruct."

Apollo couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Dad...I can't let you risk your life..."

"Apollo, you need to look at this way - I have great faith that Gunther is sincere. It is merely a prudent move to ensure that Earth is not touched. I would never ask you to press those buttons," he told his son. "I understand it would be very hard. Even you, Colonel Tigh. If you feel you cannot in good conscience do it, I will fully understand, and leave it to President Adar. He shall be on the bridge with you, anyway."

Tigh looked sorrowful for a moment as he considered their great commander's acts. No, he hadn't fought the Cylons himself while they traveled through space in search of a new home - of the legendary planet called Earth - but his great leadership had inspired them all so much. The thought of having to kill Adama to preserve Earth was shocking, but they'd all vowed to give their lives for the colonists. Doing their duty was difficult, but it had to be done. Even when that duty was very hard. Finally, after several seconds, he slowly nodded his head. "I can do it, Sir."

"Good. I will also be available, presuming I am conscious, to fire the weapon myself, should I need to. It will be a tight squeeze in that viper, but we have build it to fit two people now. However, we will need to get in very close, and there is always that danger." He proceeded to inquire into Starbuck and Apollo's idea for destroying the third basestar.

Boxey and Jimmy rode their bikes home to Jimmy's house after school. "Sure wish we could ride past the hospital," came Jimmy's voice. "The teacher figured you were just as distracted by that as I was; it was a good cover."

"Yeah, I guess so." Boxey thought of the impending delivery. "I wonder if Aunt Athena's havin' her baby yet, it's a shame my dad can't be here to see that." Jimmy nodded. They rode past the farmhouse. "Well, your dad's car's still there, and so's his truck. Guess not."

"Let's ride out to the barn, drop off our bikes, and get some of that silage in," suggested Jimmy. "I'll race you."

Boxey yelled to the boy ahead of him "we didn't even listen to the weather for today." He shook his head. Something tells me I'd better follow him, thought the lad.

Meanwhile, Bruce had overheard the boys talking near their garage - he'd been searching for jumper cables and hadn't made it back out in time to tell them Athena was in labor. Well, he said to himself, it figures. First I go out to bring in some of the harvest early in case there's heavy rain, right before she starts her labor pains. Then I get back and nothing will start. Oh, well, if I can figure out what's wrong I can still get her to the hospital before she's due.

Adama and Gunther launched with little fanfare early that day. A large missile - complete with several nuclear warheads - had been fastened to the top of the viper. Adama seemed unfazed - everything did appear to be on the level.

Apollo and Starbuck had snuck away from a large group scanning the area around the Galactica, and flown over to one of the fleet ships. They noticed a few small lights that could only be the fires emanating from inside Galactica herself. They were not out of control, but the energy expended by the battlestar in destroying one basestar had meant there was not much available to assist in fighting the blazes. Hence, the firefighters had them only somewhat under control. Had there been winds on board the ship, there would be much more danger.

"We should be able to recover, but it'll take a while," Apollo considered.

Starbuck nodded. "Maybe till my next turn as Trimonthly. Thought about how to start fires on the fleet ship?"

"I think our best bet is to let the Cylons do it for us; they might figure on attacking us with raiders for a while." He pondered aloud that "we don't know what they'll think, though, so I guess we need to be ready for anything."

"Can we be sure to be able to get from the bridge back to the viper bay," Starbuck wondered. "Because if we can't, don't worry about me, I've done my part for our people. Cassie and I don't have kids yet, so it's not like I have little ones to think about." He pondered all the times when Apollo had sacrificed for him. He felt he hadn't really deserved the chances, but he'd been given them anyway. He wanted to be able to return the favor to someone.

Apollo shook his head. "You and me are in this till the end, pal. Together," he emphasized as the flew into the docking bay of one of the colonial ships. They took a second to look around, sensing the emptiness of it. "It's like a ghost ship."

"When they said evacuate, they meant it." He looked into someone's living quarters. It had been very cramped, as it was in all the ships. They'd crowded in as many as they could, which meant disease spread somewhat often. This family had lost someone in...he scratched his head trying to recall the calculation method for converting their years into Earth ones. "Apollo, this person died while we were going through the wormhole. Probably one of the last things he heard was that Boxey had returned safely, that Earth was right on the other side, and we were going through." He saw a weakly scribbled note. It read "going to the Promised Land."

Apollo gazed into the eerie flat. "It'd be fun to take this," he muttered. "But we left so much behind on our old world. And every one of these places has a story to tell."

Starbuck concurred. "I never really wanted to think about my own past, but...yeah, I guess even I did."

The captain put a hand on his shoulder. "I know. Funny they didn't take this. New beginning, I guess."

"Maybe they wanted a memorial for the person in space," guessed the lieutenant. "He got to see our Promised Land, even if he didn't cross over." He once again voiced the desire to take the note, if nothing else.

"Let's let it be - as a memorial to those who suffered from the Cylons. He'll have had a part in destroying them." Apollo gently took Starbuck by the arm and led him away, thoughts of the lonely message echoing in Starbuck's mind.

The men made their way to the bridge, slowly turning the ship around and starting it on a direct course toward the basestar. If all worked out well, Adama and Gunther were getting themselves in position to devastate the third and final basestar, and trying to convince the Cylons for as long as possible not to send fighters to attack their fleet ship. If things weren't going so well, well...they refused to think about that. They couldn't' stand to ponder that. Though he knew Apollo didn't like to cause himself worry by thinking of his family at these times, he asked "think Boxey's having fun down there on Earth?"

Suddenly, Cylon ships began attack the fleet ship with ferocity. What's happened, Apollo wondered as the ship was rocked intensely. Apollo and Starbuck were tossed about like poorly build structures in a giant earthquake. There better not be much movement from that basestar, because I don't think we can stay here much longer. Apollo pulled Starbuck away just before a computer console blew up, and they rushed off the bridge. "Probably something a lot more peaceful than we are," he muttered as they ran, hoping the viper bay was still intact.

Boxey caught up to Jimmy as he was driving a tractor out of the barn. He scanned the skies as gray clouds began to come from the west. Since they weren't too numerous, he said "yeah, maybe we can get a little done."

"May as well, it'll take my mind off my dad." Boxey also got into the tractor, and the boys began to go out to load it with corn to be used as feed for animals. "Not many people know only 15 of corn grown is grown for human use as food," Jimmy remarked. "So what do you think your dad's doing now?"

"I often figure it's so much fun out flying in space. Yeah, he says it's dangerous, but still..." He halted, his mind on numerous events. "It's not all great, but it's gotta be fun and exciting."

Boxey and Jimmy began to unload the crops from the tractor into the silo. Pulling the tractor up to the hay and corn grinder in the ever-increasing rain, Jimmy asked Boxey to slide the door open. "We're gonna do this now, no sense waiting," he cried out.

As the door slowly opened, Boxey suggested they wait. That machine look quite foreboding.

"Yeah, that's for silage," Jimmy explained. "It's just a PTO. You guys have one, right?"

"Yeah, but in this weather..." He backed off slightly. Something reminded him of Apollo's warnings about fighting the Cylons. Normally, except for a couple times, he'd had trepidations about anyone going out there. And he'd never tried to fight Cylons in the rain. "It's raining harder."

The wind howled. "Aw, it'll let up. Here, get on the tractor, and back her in. If your aunt starts in labor they might be rushin' her to the hospital, right?" Yes, it was true. "So, this harvest's gotta be done. Can't put these things off." Boxey reluctantly agreed. "And I've done this before, it ain't really hard like driving a car. Kids my age do it all the time"

Driving the tractor reminded Boxey of the flight simulator on board the Galactica, in some ways. He'd tested it during dangerous conditions, but no simulator could prepare him for the rigors of driving a tractor in an increasing downpour. This could be classified as a storm now, as thunder rumbled in the distance. "I don't like the sounds of that thunder, Jimmy," he called out.

Jimmy loaded the silo a little, then had Boxey help from the tractor while he worked on the hay grinder. He stopped to inspect the clouds; the thunder was getting a little louder, and now he thought he saw lightning - he didn't want to be around this machinery if that was coming. Jimmy climbed up the ramp, showing off by trying to crawl off the back of the machine instead of off the side like he should.

The machine was still pulling the silage into the silo and processing it as he reached the top and grabbed the tractor. "Yeah, maybe we better..." Boxey heard no more words, only a bloodcurdling scream.

Chapter Four

Boxey quickly glanced behind him to see the machine starting to pull Jimmy into it. "Jimmy!" he cried. He tried his best to climb up onto the enormous tractor wheel, constantly fighting to maintain his grip as Jimmy held on for dear life to the tractor. He could tell the problem - the PTO had grabbed Jimmy's pantleg. Jimmy was quickly losing his grip as things got wetter and wetter. Boxey's junior junior class warrior skills kicking in, he ordered Jimmy to lock his arms. The boy was having trouble just gripping the tractor, though. Boxey pulled himself to the top of the wheel and dove headfirst into the silage in the tractor, just grabbing onto Jimmy's arm as the boy lost his grip on the tractor.

Boxey gritted his teeth and locked his arms. "Keep yer arms straight," he said as he tried to pull Jimmy out of the machinery with one arm, keeping hold of the tractor with the other just in case. The PTO was already pulling Jimmy's pants off, and Boxey feared it might have part of Jimmy's leg, too, until lightning illuminated the site for a split second. It didn't yet, but it was close. An enormous clap of thunder followed. Had Boxey been counting "one thousand one..." like he normally did, he would have known it was only two-fifths of a mile away.

Boxey's gums hurt from gritting his teeth so hard. He feared that the equipment could suck him in, as well. He said a quick prayer, as the thunder and lightning moved closer. He still couldn't believe how dark it got during a thunderstorm. He fought to maintain his grip on Jimmy's arm, considering using two hands, then remembering he could be pulled in himself by the machine's might. He heard a rip as he scrunched his eyes shut, and suddenly the immense pull slackened off considerably. The PTO had pulled Jimmy's pants right off of him.

The battle was not yet over, however. Boxey now used his second hand to pull Jimmy up, then scattered some of the silage around, hoping to use some to dry off the equipment. It couldn't soak up water near fast enough, however, as the rain continued to tumble down. Now, Boxey was slipping, forcing him to regain his grip on the tractor with one hand. Both boys' muscles ached considerably.

Finally, Jimmy had a firm grip on the tractor, and pulled himself up, with Boxey's assistance. They both slid down it and raced away from the metal and the silo, panting heavily. The lightning cracked again as they dove - this time the boys didn't even have time to think "one thousand," and a streak of lightning filled the air as they dove to the ground, endeavoring to be in the lowest place they could.

Despite the torrent of rain drenching them, Jimmy found time to grin broadly while catching his breath. "Thanks. You saved my life." He shuddered as he considered the danger.

Boxey shook his head. Those thunderstorms sure do pop up fast on the plains, mused Boxey. "My dad and Starbuck cannot possibly be facing anything like this," he thought out loud.

Apollo had stepped up the speed of the fleet ship to maximum. They hoped they weren't spreading themselves too thin - there still had to be vipers protecting them from Cylon raiders, plus some attacking the base star they were going toward as a diversion. They couldn't tell how many raiders had damaged the fleet ship, but only a couple had done incredible damage to the mother ship once. "This is what I call a firestorm," Starbuck announced.

"And they think those Midwestern thunderstorms are bad," considered Apollo, recalling the fiery destruction of their planet. As they grabbed whatever they could and wet it, trying to race through the flames, the shock came back to life for both of them. The ship careened through space, and rocking greatly intensified because of it. Apollo ran ahead a little ways when Starbuck tripped, rolling and hitting a wall as the ship reeled. He quickly ran back to pull him up, trying to fight the flames.

Their vipers were safe, but just barely. They needed to turn them around on the platform themselves, which they managed to do with some effort. Once they sped off, Apollo ordered that they be ready for anything.

The ship continued to rock, and Starbuck put his hands on the "fire" button as his viper flew into space. Apollo did likewise. Several Cylons were nearby, but thankfully were too surprised to see the lone vipers. Apollo and Starbuck destroyed them with ease. "Let's get going," cried Apollo, "and make sure that basestar can't get too far." The fleet ship appeared like a fiery meteor as it streaked toward the Cylon base ship.

Meanwhile, Tigh listened and watched from the bridge, the black box in his hand. Gunther was flying with Adama, announcing that he was bringing the hostage in for "questioning." Adama noticed that the basestar looked ready to launch several flights at the South Pole. We need to make this one good, pondered the man.

"Why have you brought him," asked the Cylon. "You said you had the keys yourself."

Gunther spoke as the viper prepared to approach the landing pad. Any shields were down. "True, but I only have so much access. He will provide you with more, if you question him enough," came Gunther's evil-sound laugh. Tigh, slightly nervous as he heard this, pushed the first green button for the first time. He didn't let up on it, though. Adama had allowed himself to be a hostage once before, and it had worked out all right. However, the notion still disturbed him.

"Is that the weapon," came Lucifer's voice. Tigh could tell Lucifer was licking his chops.

"Yes, very shortly we can provide you with a demonstration."

What are you waiting for, Tigh wanted to shout. He tentatively released the first button and pressed the next two in sequence, just in case. Don't make me have to do this, he thought to himself.

Finally, a door opened in the basestar which would allow the viper to enter. Instead of entering, Gunther fired the nuclear missile, and began to fly around. A voice saying "we have been tricked!" was heard seconds before the impact, which turned the vast majority of living quarters into hollow shells, thanks to the intense heat and radiation. This was now a basestar with nobody to launch anything.

Adama grabbed the controls from the shocked Swissman and pulled upward, causing the viper to turn at a ninety degree angle. It had been so long since Adama had flown one of these things; he hoped he remembered how. The ride quickly smoothed out as he suddenly found himself and Gunther flying through a wave of Cylon ships more intent on escaping the drag from the nuke than on hitting the viper. That didn't last for long, but luckily, Sheba had arrived with a dozen vipers to help out.

The group quickly fled back to the Galactica, sensing they were outnumbered, with Adama in tow.

Now, they faced another problem. The Cylon warriors would flee to the third basestar. Adama ordered that several vipers go back to destroy the bombed out battlestar. As they did so, he gave Tigh the all clear signal. "How is our other friend doing?"

Finally over his shock, Gunther said "with friends like that, who needs enemies?"

Tigh informed him that the fiery fleet ship was under severe attack. "Gunther couldn't convince them not to strike there. However, Apollo and Starbuck made it out safe, though they're still in a heap of trouble."

"We're on our way there," came the commander. He let Gunther fly for a while.

The Swissman grinned. "You did really well, Commander. I'd be happy to let you fly in the battle."

"I was hoping. It will be my pleasure," came the contented voice. He could only smile for a moment as he heard Tigh report that the basestar was charging up its own weapons.

After a few minutes of waiting for the thunder and lightning to slow down, Boxey offered Jimmy his trousers. "Here, take mine, so you don't catch cold."

Jimmy held Boxey's hand to keep him from unfastening his pants. "No, please. I'm already soaked, it wouldn't help." He emitted a "phew" and admitted reluctantly "besides, it's my fault that thing almost turned me into mushies." He grinned proudly; Galactica terms were becoming as familiar for him to use as Earth ones were for Boxey.

Boxey looked up - it was lightning less and less. "Come on, let's go." He gazed off to the west. "Hey, that's a funny looking sky over there."

Jimmy looked up. "Uh-oh," he spouted nervously. "Come on, let's go to the barn."

"Why the barn - we're already soaked, we may as well run to the house. I'll race you."

Jimmy held Boxey's arm. "You ain't never seen that kind of a sky?" He hadn't - even Cylon attacks from when he was little didn't remind him of that kind of a cloud formation. And he'd always ducked into an interior room when the weatherman said to. "Well, that looks like it's gonna make a funnel cloud. And you know what that means - a tornado."

"...The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch effective until 7:00 PM for Woodbury, Cherokee, and Plymouth Counties..."

Bruce Kirok grumbled as Athena let out a yelp of pain. It wouldn't have been very wise to go out when thunderstorms were threatened, he told himself, especially worrying about the kids. Now, it was worse. Well, with all that thunder and lightning, he posited, they probably ducked into the barn or the silo - preferably the barn, since there would be less equipment with the horses. But now? He hoped Jimmy knew what he was doing.

Bruce continued to help Athena breathe as the labor pains increased. "Mabel and the kids are missing all this," he said to himself. "They're at the hospital right now with Harry, and we're the ones stuck here." He tried once more to persuade his wife to get into the car - the thunder was letting up and it was brightening some. Maybe they could still make it.

"Are you crazy? With that thunder and lightning," she screamed. Woman's probably right, Bruce considered. Once it started lightning, it was safer to stay here until that whole system passed. "Besides, Boxey's not back yet."

"You said Boxey was a warrior junior junior class," Bruce noted.

"He trained to fight Cylons, not tornadoes-AAAAAHHH, there's another one!" Brace checked his watch. The pains were bunching together. He moved Athena into a bedroom in the interior of the home. "Get out there and watch for Boxey!"

"Hey, my nephew's in this, too, he'll know what to do. Besides, you can't deliver your own kid," came the insistent remark.

"I'm sure it's happened in the history of one of our planets," screamed the woman as she pushed him away.

Not knowing what to do, Bruce wandered out to the living room just as the Emergency Broadcast System warning came on again. Bruce glanced outside as he heard "...a tornado warning for Woodbury County - this mean a funnel cloud has been sighted. You are advised to seek shelter in a basement or low lying area or interior room..."

"And there it is," mumbled Bruce. "I don't think Athena's going to like this." And I'm starting to dislike it pretty much myself.

Jimmy and Boxey pulled open the barn door as a large gust appeared to shake the building. As Boxey ran to the center of the barn, he noticed rain coming through. "We better get under the hay loft," he announced. "Your roof's leaking."

Jimmy looked up. "What roof?!" He ran to the loft where Boxey was and pulled him out from under it as another gust blew and rattled the loft. They both wondered if that might collapse next. "Let's get Missy's horse," he declared, opening the stall as more rain came in - the roof was almost half gone.

"What about ol' Bessie here," Boxey wondered of the cow the family used for milk.

"You can't ride a cow!" came the insistent comment, laced with giggles.

Boxey grinned while shrugging. "Hey, I'm not from this planet, remember," he kidded Jimmy. The boys laughed, and he was asked if he'd ever ridden a horse. "Not really - except for the pony rides at the fair."

"Well, hop on." Boxey was helped into the saddle, and Jimmy got behind him. They walked the horse out the barn door and Jimmy gave him a little kick in the side. "Giddy up!" The horse began to gallop toward the farmhouse. "Now, hold on tight, cause it might jolt you if there's a big clap of thunder."

Unaccustomed to the rough ride, Boxey said "I-I-it's jolting me-e-e alrea-eady." What I wouldn't give for a nice, smooth viper right about now.

"Speak for yourself, I don't have much padding back here, remember." Jimmy glanced behind them; the wind was picking up speed, blowing rain in their faces now. He held tightly to Boxey as the boys and the horse playfully romped through the mud, trying to reach the farmhouse before the tornado gathered a full head of steam. Boxey somehow tried to steer the animal.

Boxey laughed, imagining the fun he thought Apollo and Starbuck must have out in space. "Say, this is fun, maybe I could return the favor, and get my dad to take you up in a viper sometime."

Jimmy turned his head once more and shuddered. He gave Boxey a playful slap on the shin and said "what makes you think this is fun?!" They quickly rode up to the door, then Jimmy realized he didn't have anything to tie the horse to the house. "Let's walk him inside."

Bruce had been in the bedroom with Athena – praying heavily - when he heard the boys entering. "Thank goodness you're safe," he said as he walked out to see them, "we're about to deliver your cous-Where are your pants, young man?!?"

"I'm gonna get some on right away." He ran into the bedroom as he ordered Boxey to park the horse.

"Boxey..." Bruce was interrupted from telling him to put the horse outside by a scream from Athena. Boxey dropped the rope he'd grabbed to run into the bedroom, leaving Bruce to groan and shake his head as he tied the mare to the door handle and ran in with Boxey. "This is crazy," he muttered. "We were worried the kid would never believe his mom's history - he'll never believe his own birth story!"

Adama cringed as he heard about the powering up of the weapons. "What's it aimed for?" And don't let it be Earth.

"We can't tell, Apollo and Starbuck are trying to get a closer look."

Starbuck looked at the basestar, noticing the same thing on his sensors. Turning his viper around, he said "I'm going back to change the fleet ship's course."

"Don't do that, you're crazy," Apollo told him. "You can't get a viper in there now." He thought about flying after him, but hesitated. Going in there was suicidal, and he knew it. He needed to be out defeating the other Cylons.

Starbuck sensed it too as he raced closer. No, there was no way he was going to be able to fly that thing anywhere, let alone into the path of the laser gun the battlestar had. "What about another fleet ship?"

Adama nixed that idea. "Thought about that, can't evacuate in time. Tigh, can you move the Galactica? It might be headed for you."

Apollo glanced at the path the fleet ship was taking. "Everyone, let's go fire on the fleet ship on my mark - 3...2...1...now!" The Cylons were befuddled as the vipers evaded them and went to fire on their own fleet ship.

"What is the meaning of this," inquired a Cylon to the leader of that basestar as the Cylon ships from the disabled basestar flew toward the lone active basestar. No answer could be found.

Even the humans were dumbstruck until they realized that the fleet ship's trajectory would now keep it from ramming the basestar. However, they obeyed Apollo's command, and soon the large ship was exploding near the basestar, damaging several dozen Cylon fighters and raiders as the vipers flew out of the way of the blast.

"Good thinking, Apollo," shouted Adama, "now let's go get them."

Tigh reported that the second basestar had been destroyed. However, they still had some serious maneuvering to do. A basestar versus a battlestar was not a bad matchup, but versus a wounded battlestar the Cylons held a clear advantage. And, this battlestar needed to be protected.

Yes, it was possible that the fleet ships which traveled to tell others of Earth would run across the Pegasus or some other battlestar. However, there was no guarantee of that. If another Cylon basestar came, Earth faced serious problems. They had been awfully lucky to defend Earth thus far with only one battlestar - and even now, Earth wasn't totally out of the woods. Suppose the basestar fired one shot, then retreated to fight another day? Suppose it tried some trickery to attack Earth later? Suppose that there was another basestar coming? It wasn't likely, with the wormhole having broken up, but one never knew.

Tigh therefore ordered the battlestar moved as best it could, with a fleet ship ready to bear the brunt of an attack if the weapon fired. However, he knew that the basestar would cause some impact on the Galactica, as well. "Any change of getting that cannon loaded again," Adama thought out loud.

"We'd be able to do it at 50, but we'd be wasting a shot pretty much. Plus, we'd lose most of the inroads we've made against the fires."

That's what I figured, he told himself. I just have to hope they can stop that basestar first.

Adama and company were making inroads on that, but it was still a very rough battle. Cylon ships appeared to be everywhere. They used several that had been rendered unusable by the blast as shields, but these soon were destroyed by other Cylons. "We need to figure out some way to get this base star out of here," grumbled the commander. "Any suggestions?"

Apollo thought for a moment. The battle raged on intently, though, preventing him from thinking too much. "I guess we just have to let them fire once, and then..." He thought a minute. "The Cylons will have to get out of the way while that weapon fires, right?" They would. "Starbuck, you and me are gonna try to fire inside that laser pit right after it's done. It's gonna be close, but I think we can do it."

Adama agreed, and when Gunther insisted on helping, he decided he would do it, too. "We'll need all the help we can get. Colonel Tigh, if there's part of the Galactica which could be threatened, evacuate all people from that section and seal it off - we want a vacuum on those parts. If there's anyone trapped, there, don't bother, we'll let them have a chance." He ordered Sheba to be close to the Galactica to try and help put out the fire. "Apollo, you can go too, Starbuck can fly this..."

Apollo knew Adama was thinking of Boxey. Yes, that's a fault of mine, I know, he said to himself, but right now there is a battle to be won. And I consider myself the best pilot. Besides, as he told Adama, "Everyone's been talking about faith. I should show some in being able to win this fight. I know you'll take good care of me."

The maneuvering complete, Apollo and Starbuck flew dangerously close to the laser blast from the basestar, Adama and Gunther following close behind. "If there was wind in space I'd say we felt the breeze," the Swissman declared.

"You haven't seen anything yet." As the vipers fired on the basestar, the Galactica was recovering from being rocked by an explosion and debris from the ravaged fleet ship brought in to shield them. Colonel Tigh was close to ordering an evacuation of the battlestar, though he chose not to. It appeared as if the entire ship had been rocked by a series of magnitude 8 earthquakes. He wished they could have gotten more of the skeleton crew out of that fleet ship, but sadly they hadn't. He shook his head. The Cylons just never stop taking lives, he muttered to himself.

Destruction was rampant around the basestar. The blast from the Galactica had practically taken off the top half of the other one - this one was losing bits and pieces, but still boasted quite a few defenses. The viper fire was enormous, but it had to be - the number of Cylons had only now been whittled down to the same number as that of vipers.

"We've done about all we can," spoke Adama. "It's offensive capacity is practically nil now."

"Sure you don't mean we should back off and let them go," spoke Apollo.

"No, "calmly spoke the commander. "We have a trump card, if the damage isn't too bad. Colonel Tigh." The call was acknowledged as the vipers returned to regroup, refuel, and reload. "Do we still have a functioning viper bay or shall we land elsewhere?" It worked. "Good. How about our guest?"

"Just like last time, we've been able to get it working," he said of the Cylon which had crashed on Earth. "But we've erased all memories of Earth and figured out the programming."

Gunther clapped his hands. "Wow, that's great, so you can..." He paused a minute. "What can you do?"

Adama explained. "We'll let them lick their wounds, then tell them we have this Cylon - they've probably forgotten all about him. And when he goes back..." The commander smiled, not wishing to reveal anything until he knew for sure it was still viable. The operating facilities had to be a big mess.

Tigh met them down in the recovery area. "Like you say, Commander, they probably have forgotten about it. Gunther never heard anything about it."

"I suspect they think they found it on Earth, and are studying it there. We need to keep enough vipers out there to make sure no Cylons go looking for it, though as I suspected, they are mostly worried about us." He grinned. "And with good reason. I hate to waste a good viper, but this is too good to pass up." He activated the Cylon. "State your goal."

The Cylon responded. "To destroy Cylons." The red dot was moving as normal.

"When will you do that," asked Adama, "and how did you get out?"

"By getting into the basestar, planting explosives, and detonating them. I escaped a holding cell and stole a viper."

They sent the viper on its way with the Cylon. He was received as expected. After a number of questions, he was allowed to get back to flying a Cylon fighter. He scanned the landing bay looking for "saboteurs," but was really planting explosives on as many ships as he could. Once spotted, he pressed a button, and he and dozens of Cylons blew up.

Having spotted this from a distance, Apollo swooped over to the shocked Cylons with dozens of others, and began firing on the Cylons and the basestar. Within an hour, the basestar was battling heavy fires. The Galactica wasn't in much better shape, but it could be salvaged. It would take a while, but for now, they had no more worries. The basestar was destroyed. All breathed a sigh of relief.

Gunther whooped and hollered all the way back to the viper bay. "I'm a real live space cadet now," he exclaimed.

As Bruce tied up the pony in the kitchen, he heard Jimmy explain "I got my pantleg caught in the PTO."

Bruce grabbed his heart for a second. "Oh, thank goodness you're okay - what happened?"

"Long story, but suffice to say, Boxey rescued me, and it was real scary." He winced as they walked into the bedroom. "And ridin' that horse back wasn't much more fun." His dry pants were already getting somewhat soaked from the inside out. Jimmy grinned as he knelt beside Boxey, on Athena's left. Both considered the miracle of birth - they were thrilled to be able to share such a momentous occasion. "Need Boxey and me to do anything?"

Bruce knelt on Athena's right as another labor pain shot through her. His mind now totally off the boys - whatever Jimmy went through was probably scary enough he didn't need much punishment, just a good lecture later would do - he prepared to deliver Athena's baby himself. "Get a towel and some warm water, Jimmy. Boxey, I need you to boil some water to sterilize a couple things and be ready to check the umbilical cord's not wrapped around the baby and cut it later - you've got experience with cattle, don'tcha?" He did. "Good, it'll be kind of the same." They ran off to do these and a couple additional chores, and returned moments later.

Athena began to breath heavily. Boxey held her hand as the house rattled - he prayed that the ceiling not cave in, as he feared it might. The tornado already had taken their barn roof. It felt as though a freight train were rumbling directly overhead, and he considered that the shaking could possible assist in Athena's pushing. "Just shift when the house does," he suggested.

"You expect me to follow this weather, it's crazy...unnnnnhhhhh," cried Athena.

Bruce positioned himself to take the baby upon delivery as Boxey agreed. "We didn't have weather like this on our old planet, did we?" The whooshing had grown intensely.

"IT CAN'T BE THIS BAD ANYWHERE IN THE GALAXY," screamed the mother to be as the loud rain continued to pelt the windows and the roof and she pushed again. "AND OUR LEGENDS CALLED THIS A PARADISE?!?!"

Suddenly, amidst the torrent, a loud cry was heard, as the baby emerged in his dad's arms. Jimmy quickly wiped him off, and Boxey checked the umbilical cord to ensure it wasn't wrapped around the baby. It wasn't. "Congratulations," Boxey shouted. "It's a boy!" Athena exhaled deeply, exhausted, as they finished wiping off the child and handed him to her.

Apollo, Starbuck, and Adama met on the bridge after the mammoth battle. The fires were barely under control. They had to hope there wouldn't be any more Cylons for months, but it would survive. At least my tour won't be dull as Trimonthly Commander, pondered Starbuck. "Earth just doesn't know how close they came, huh," the captain mused.

"Aw, we had it in the bag," Starbuck declared. He gazed out the window. "They were no match for Gunther's impersonation of Dr. Strangelove with that missile, practically riding it down their throats."

"Gunther's," came both men at once.

"Yeah, I'd told you about the bomb, Commander, but I guess I never said who originally had the idea." He grinned. "And to think that after World War Two, the next national in Earth history to fire a nuclear weapon was Swiss!"

Adama nodded. "Yes, quite clever." The thought of Earth made him sigh. Such a wonderful planet, despite its problems. Nobody deserved to suffer such terror as they'd witnessed, did they? The beautiful blue ball with white swirls reminded him so much of his own world. And his crippled battlestar - one in a fleet which used to number many more - was the only one which could protect it if they came again. "Though we have to realize they could return someday."

"It'll be a while, with that wormhole destroyed now," contended Apollo. "Enough time for us to help Earth build her arsenal. Maybe do some weapons development."

"And, we've got the fleet ships out scouting, they might return with the Pegasus or some other battlestar," acknowledged Adama.

Starbuck was mentally trying to fit Cylons into the book of Revelation. He considered a few places where they could have been prophesied. And with the Galactica so swamped with damage, and repairs being so slow in coming...

"Oh, well, we know the good guys win. They always do," he said finally.

"You and Gunther are two of a kind," Adama told him, shaking his head. "The good guys always win.'" Then again, he told himself, maybe in the back of my mind, I, too, had that sort of faith. Except, for me it isn't parodying TV shows and movies the way Gunther's lines were. "But, then again, the good guys are the ones on God's side. And, this is the kind of thing that could lead to a false peace someday, as nations band together under that antichrist, so who knows. Perhaps this, too, was prophesied, just like our return to earth after so many years.

Starbuck put an arm on Apollo's shoulder. "Yeah, but nobody can beat my buddy Apollo when it comes to fighting space invaders.' Unless they come in neat little rows like in the arcades." The trio laughed. "Think Boxey and Jimmy had as much fun as we did, buddy?"

"Oh, I'm sure it was probably nice and peaceful for them. But I'm sure they found soemthing fun to do. Let's go home and see em." The group went down to the shuttle bay to depart.

Epilogue

The shuttle landed at the Kiroks' with Adama, Apollo, Starbuck, and Sheba departing. Earth seemed almost better this time around than the first time they'd landed. Boxey and Jimmy ran out to join them, quickly hugging everyone.

"You made it, Mom, you made it, Dad!" shouted Boxey.

"Yes, we did," came Apollo as he hugged the boy. "You were right. God won the battle - but we helped." As long as he could, he wanted to keep that aura of being able to do anything. It was a part of fatherhood he treasured. "How's your dad, Jimmy?"

"Lots better, he should be able to get out in a couple weeks." They began to walk back to the farmhouse. "Oh, and Uncle Apollo, you are now the uncle of a baby boy. James Zachary. First name has been in my family a long time. Aunt Athena says Zac was your brother's name." Apollo nodded sadly, hoping Athena or Boxey had told him the story behind his brother's death. He wiped away a lone tear. I wish you could be here to see this day, Zac, he thought to himself. But you're in a far better place. And at least Earth isn't threatened anymore.

Apollo put an arm around each of the boys' shoulders as they entered the Kiroks' front door. They heard Mabel in the kitchen fiddling with pots and pans. She came into the living room and greeted them as the captain spoke. "Well, at least something interesting happened; sorry you couldn't face adventures like we did, Boxey. I hope someday you understand." He noticed the boys giving him totally incredulous looks. Holding out his hands as they turned to face him, he asked with a smile "what, what did I say?"

"We didn't face adventures, Uncle Apollo?"

"You've got to be kidding us!" came Boxey's dumbfounded remark.

Now Starbuck was caught up in the suspense. "Why, what happened?"

"Was the delivery all right?" wondered Sheba, trying to guess. Mabel tried to stifle a giggle, at the same time thanking the Lord for Jimmy's protection.

"Oh, it was great," Boxey said, "except for bein' almost buried alive." The new arrivals' jaws dropped. "And havin' the roof blow off the barn while we we're gettin' a horse out, and Jimmy almost bein' turned to mushies."

As the adults stared, speechless, Mabel shook her head. "He's just being modest. Boxey saved Jimmy's life - one of the hay shredders almost pulled him into it, but Boxey managed to rescue him, even though it might have pulled him in, too."

"You did?" Boxey nodded. Apollo and Sheba embraced Boxey again, the father remarking "I'm so proud of you. Of course, I'm always proud of you, but when I hear things like that it just makes me feel so good!" Sheba concurred.

"Thanks. Wanna hear what all happened?" The adults listened with rapt attention as the boys related their adventures.

Adama could only shake his head. "The things that go on while one is away."

"And here we thought we were leaving you someplace where it was so tranquil," stated Sheba with a laugh.

At this moment, Athena and her husband drove up to the farm house and exited the car, walking in through the open front door. Athena quickly handed the baby to Bruce and hugged the others. "Want to meet the first intergalactic child - a healthy, bouncing baby boy."

"Except you heard about the tornado," came Bruce matter-of-factly, as he pulled out the birth certificate. "Doctors were so flustered and hurried with all them thunderstorms and power failures and the like, look what they did to the birth certificate. They left out the 'o' in the last name. May as well leave it that way, now, I guess. That's what she figures, so I guess I'll go along with it."

A sudden look of recognition spread across Jimmy's face. "I don't believe it." He began laughing.

Bruce shrugged, letting Adama hold his newest grandson. "What is it; just one letter. I'm sure it's happened before."

Jimmy shook his head. "No, don't you see? Boxey, you remember that name, Jim Kirk, don't you? He was from Iowa, too."

"You mean..." Apollo began to think, finally recognizing what they meant. "Gee, yeah, who knows, Dad - a couple hundred years from now, one of your descendants..." As the thought hung and the others caught on, the entire living room filled with laughter.


End file.
